Television sets across the country are beginning to go dark as primetime begins to fill with reality programs and game show and late night has become a place to catch up on past current events. No, it is not the end of the world, but it is the result of the Writers Guild of America or the WGA. The WGA is a labor union that combines WGAEast and WGAWest, who represent just about every writer in movies, television, and even radio. Every three years the WGA has to negotiate a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers or the AMPTP. The two sides were unable to come up with an agreement by November 5th thus the over 12000 members of WGA are officially on strike. It means that virtually all of the scripted shows on the small screen are on an indefinite hiatus once the already written episodes run out, and on the big screen, the postponement of some highly hyped films. The main reason behind the strike is residual from DVDs and “new media” meaning the internet and other new types of media. The WGA would like to see an increase in kickbacks from DVD sales and some from “new media” for which they currently get nothing. The WGA claims that most writers rely on the residuals during tough times while the AMPTP claim that they have to keep up with the rising cost of operation. The AMPTP has refused to budge on most of the important issues; however, the two sides are planning to resume talks on November 26th. The WGA strike in 1988 lasted 22 weeks; let us hope this one does not last that long I would rather not have primetime littered with shows like “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?” Although the two sides represent tens of thousands of members, the real communication or the lack thereof is amongst a small group of representatives. In this case, they are a problem-solving group since they are a group of individuals who are trying to solve the problem of the strike and reach a decision in the form of a contract. These individuals are probably highly educated in not only small group but also interpersonal communications in general. They must be professionals in order to be entrusted with the financial being of so many people. There are of course rules to follow and so far, they seem to have followed to some form of the problem-solving sequence developed by John Dewey. They have indentified and outlined the two sides’ differences in residuals of certain media forms. The criteria for evaluating the solutions, the amount of “new media” included and at what percent, has been discussed but the two sides are not seeing eye to eye on the practicality. There have been several proposed solutions by the WGA that have been dismissed, even despite the willingness of the WGA to back off on some of its demands before November 5th to try to avoid a strike. The AMPTP evaluated and rejected the offers wearing their “fact hat” stating the rising costs of production and marketing and the “negative argument hat” as they have already prepared for the worst by stockpiling scripts and showing reality and game shows. We have yet to reach the selection and testing of a solution, as the WGA is still on strike and talks have been nonexistent. Hopefully on November 28th with the spirit of thanks and giving the two sides can comes to an agreement since the last strike cost them over 500 million dollars and much agony for the viewers.