“We’re Not Couch Potatoes: TV Fans Get Politically Active Online”
“We’re Not Couch Potatoes” is a half-hour radio documentary about the activism of TV fans during the 2007/2008 Writer’s Guild of America strike. It aired nationally on Making Contact in 2009.
“We’re Not Couch Potatoes” looks at the impact of the internet on the more traditional medium of television. As the mainstream media expands its use of the internet to engage viewers through interactive content, television fans are using these same new media tools to find their own voice and to advocate for their agenda in the world of entertainment.
The recent strike of the Writers’ Guild of America was a seminal moment in this new paradigm shift. For three months, organized online fan communities used the internet to support the labor demands of writers through YouTube campaigns, direct protests to studios, pizza deliveries to picketing writers, and skywriting protests over the New Year’s Day parade in Pasadena. “We’re Not Couch Potatoes” explores these actions and also examines the ties that hold fan communities together and the effect they have on TV content.
