The Television Academy has announced its 2018 changes in membership requirements as approved by its Board of Governors.
Among the changes is the expansion of membership to include personal publicists in the Professional Representatives Peer Group, short form writers in the Writers Peer Group and colorists in the Picture Editors Peer Group.
“It’s the Television Academy’s mission to create a membership body that reflects the many diverse professions and endeavors of those working in the television industry,” said Hayma Washington, Television Academy chairman and CEO. “These membership changes are indicative of the ongoing effort to more closely represent our vision of a progressive and inclusive television community.”
New membership eligibility rules changes include:
Professional Representatives Peer Group: Active Status (voting) membership now includes personal publicists who are actively engaged in publicizing individual artists, a substantial portion of whom appear or work in nationally viewed television programming. All applicants must have at least three years experience as a personal publicist, and all requirements must be met within four years preceding their application for membership.
Writers Peer Group: Active Status (voting) membership now includes writers with credits on at least 120 minutes of professional short form programs that have had broad domestic or verifiable international consumer release. The short form programs must have an average content length of 15 minutes or less.
Picture Editors Peer Group: Active Status (voting) membership now includes Associate Producers/Post Supervisors and Colorists with a minimum of four years working on nationally exhibited content, full-time for 24 of the last 36 months.
Additional changes include:
Motion & Title Design Peer Group: Additional positions of employment have been added including Creative Director, Art Director, Animator, Compositor, Editor, Illustrator, Typographer and Creative Producer. Members must have worked a minimum of three years that includes at least three Motion & Title Design credits.
Sound Peer Group: Additional positions of employment have been added including Engineer, Monitor Mixer, Playback Mixer, Production Sound Mixer and Re-Recording Mixer. Members must have worked in these areas for at least three consecutive years or have verifiable credit on at least 25 hours of nationally exhibited programming within the past four years.
Makeup Artists/Hairstylists Peer Group: Active Status (voting) membership now requires work on at least 25 nationally exhibited episodes (previously 25 hours of programming) within a four-year period, plus a minimum of two years’ experience.
Reality Programming Peer Group: Active Status (voting) membership now requires individuals to have completed at least 26 work weeks (previously two calendar years) of reality television programming; or have at least 20 credited episodes in at least two of the previous four years.
Supreme Court Allows Multibillion-Dollar Class Action Lawsuit To Proceed Against Meta
The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta's bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place.
The high court dismissed the company's appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward.
Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump 's first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the company was disappointed by the court's action. "The plaintiff's claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the District Court," Stone said in an emailed statement.
Meta already has paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two high court cases involving class-action lawsuits against tech companies. The justices also are wrestling with whether to shut down a class action against Nvidia.... Read More