How Organizing New Media is Like Winning a Game of Chess

The Internet is big. So big, in fact, it currently dwarfs the number of productions the Guild covers in traditional media, and the number of new media projects is growing.

How to capture that work for union members, where to begin, what strategy to employ, how to determine leverage and how to apply it are questions that have caused many a sleepless night for those at the Guild responsible for figuring out the future.

Here’s a thought for the week. The new media entertainment production game is a lot like a chess game. Both require strategy and planning several moves ahead. Winning chess requires critical thinking and a plan of action. Organizing new media requires the same.

Okay, stay with me.

Any winning chess strategy requires the occupation of the four squares in the center of the board. Occupying those squares is about holding position, and it often falls to pawns to sit on these critical squares.

The industry wants to win the new media game, but the rules of engagement have been radically altered. Not long ago, the cost of production was so high, studios and networks were the only ones that could afford or were afforded the opportunity to produce. Today, anyone with a digital camera, a home computer with editing software and an Internet connection can produce and distribute new media content.

The studios have vast resources, and they’re using them to try to dominate the new media game by covering all of the squares on the board. SAG’s strategy is to out maneuver them. It’s possible, because it’s all about our positioning. SAG is planting the union flag on the four center squares holding our position. Whatever entities wind up dominating the new media game, they can’t win the game without dealing with us.

The value professional actors hold in new media will be determined by the activism and solidarity of SAG members today. Solidarity, leverage and position begin by insisting on the basic protections of a union contract whenever you work in new media.

Act as though your future depends on it.

Act As One
In New Media
Rule 1 on 1.1.09

The SAG new media contract is fast, flexible and easy.
For more information, e-mail organizingnewmedia@sag.org, or call (323) 549-6777