Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

I’ll admit it.  I have never been a fan of blogs.  When the phenomenon first appeared, the very advantage it offered – now anyone can get their opinions out in cyberspace for the world to read – was exactly what kept me away.  Who are these people?  Why waste your time reading what Joe Schmo has to say on a topic he probably knows nothing about?  As the popularity of blogs grew and even as blogs started appearing that were written by actual experts, I remained unconvinced.  Call me old fashioned, but I preferred my news with some sense of credibility and fact checking behind it.

Then something happened that fundamentally changed my view.  The Writers Guild of America went on strike in November.  This is a huge issue, which not only affects millions of TV viewers, but hundreds of thousands of people employed in the entertainment industry (but that’s a subject for a different post).  Immediately I scoured the web for information about the strike.  I tried the traditional news outlets, TV station sites, newspaper sites, magazines, and came up with nothing.  A few gave it a brief mention, but I was amazed at how such a huge issue that affects a large segment of California’s economy barely moved the needle.  (Of course then I realized, the networks and the news are owned by the very companies the writers are striking against…D’oh!) 

Further research led me to Unitedhollywood.com, an unofficial blog started by some of the guild's strike captains.  Needless to say, I was immediately hooked.  Here was a place where I could get unfiltered information straight from the source.  While obviously biased, this was exactly what I wanted - a blow-by-blow tally of the ongoing fight complete with strategy, tactics and the dirty tricks the other side is playing - things that would never make it in the nightly news.  I’ve got the site bookmarked and now check it daily.  Ironically, reading this blog led me to (gasp!) read other blogs.  All those embedded links were so inviting it was easy to click through and read someone else’s opinion.   I hear that the comments sections are a big part of the blog experience, but I’m not that far gone….yet.