Who Cares about Media Industry COVID policies?

Kate Fortmueller. “Who Cares about Media Industry COVID policies?” In Media Industries in Crisis: What COVID Unmasked. Edited by Vicki Mayer, Miranda Banks, and Noa Lavie. New York: Routledge.

Abstract: During the initial U.S. COVID surge of March 2020, media industry trade papers worldwide provided a corresponding wave of updates about production shutdowns as Hollywood industry stakeholders from rank-and-file union members to executives looked on in bewilderment, wondering: what next? This chapter focuses on how the development of new on-set COVID protocols impacted individuals and industries beyond the usual industry stakeholders and their content-loving fans. This chapter contextualizes the friction between traditional industry stakeholders and emerging ancillary businesses amid the media industry’s policy adjustments and adaptations to the COVID-era. This chapter assesses the ancillary business reaction to Hollywood’s developing on-set safety regime and considers how the COVID actions might inform future responses to industry-wide crises.