Writing Blog

20230826 Content Rant

August 26, 2023, 12:45pm

There is currently a strike in the USA of the Screenwriter's Guild of America (and the actors as well, but this about the people who do the real work). One thing that intrigues me about it is one of their concerns: how what they produce is classified.

See, writing is an artform. But, thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, it is no longer seen as such. Now it is "content", a phrase coined by both of them (well, Gates first, then co-opted by the Meta-Moron). Content means what is produced is a commodity. Art now has nothing to do with it. They write, they sell, and that's it. The whole idea of writing for entertainment or to say something is gone.

It happens online, as well. YouTube used to be about uploading videos. Now it's about creating content. TikTok, Instagram and Vimeo have only ever been about content. FaceBook and Twitter/X are today all about producing content. The T&C statements of both tell you very bluntly that they own anything you post on those platforms. You can deny it, and some idiots even put up signs on their pages saying this is not the case because they say so, but by using the platforms, you've agreed to the T&Cs, so you have given your content to them. You think it's art; it is now commodified as content.

Even writing platforms like medium don't talk about journalism or essay-writing; they talk about content and content production.

When WdC starts using that term, I am out of here.

I do not produce "content". I produce writing that I think could be some form of art. Low-brow, populist, rubbish art, but still art. I do not make content for commodification. This is another reason why I do not "do" self-publishing - that is producing "content"... at least, according to some of the bigger self-publishing firms out there. (Amazon have not yet started using the term, however...)

The strike is about fair pay, fair residual compensation, fair acknowledgement of work done (hear that, Disney, you thieving bastards!), and acknowledgement that what they create is worthwhile, not just content to be sold at a whim and the original owner having no say in anything.

I support the strike. Good luck... but the production companies are gong to win out because they will starve the poor writers out of house and home with their obscene profits. They can afford to give fair compensation - just do the right thing! Oh yeah, that's right; the USA's complete belief in the capitalist system means the companies can get away with anything they wish because money is all that matters.

God, I hate this world we are creating.