These are, we are constantly being told, rapidly changing times. As digital media start to have an impact, the internet revolutionises our viewing habits, and production companies re-think their commissioning processes, writers have to rise to the challenges and be ready to completely change habits and working practices developed over a lifetime.

Okay. Now let’s all stand back for a second, deep breath… and… relax.

I write comedy for a living. My job is to make people laugh. Sometimes I write single lines for presenters to read, other times I write narratives with characters and plots, often I write songs with jokes in. I started more than 20 years ago, soon after Britain had launched its fourth TV Channel, before Sky, before cable, before the internet, before all these things that I was told at the time would change the way we live – yes, even before the squarial.

Yet the only real difference to how I work is that I no longer write using pen and paper. The reason we need a strong Writers’ Guild, more than ever, is because large numbers of producers and TV companies are telling us that in today’s rapidly changing world they may not need writers anymore. And I’m afraid that we’re starting to believe them.

Writers are primarily a bunch of fretful, insecure loners who can only survive on a constant diet of reassurance and praise. As TV companies and the media continue to tell us that sitcom is dead, reality TV is the only way forward, and improvisation will eventually replace scripted comedy, we start to think about diversifying into the burgeoning pizza delivery leafletting market.

We see cutbacks in all areas of TV and radio comedy, more comedy slots taken over by home video shows, less risk, either on edgier shows or new writers. Even those of us making a living accept we can no longer expect to be paid for all work done on spec. The commissioning of a sketch series for Peter Serafiniwiecz off the back of his self-made You Tube sketches is evidence that the internet is now officially where commissioners are looking.

But all that’s really changing is how audiences choose to watch. As long as they are still watching, then they still need jokes, characters and stories.

This isn’t a rant against management. I want any show that I work on to succeed as much as they do. But so long as managers look on writers as a bunch of moaning whingers (okay that bit is probably true) who get in the way of their programme, then we will not be respected.

I want everyone to join the Guild, and for the Guild to back us when we stick our necks out and make suggestions about how to improve shows. We won’t always be right, but can we be more wrong, or less valid, than the schedulers, deputy commissioning editors, audience feedback focus group sub-sub editors and office tea-makers who now get a say in how to write the script? Huh?

That was a rhetorical question. But the answer is ‘no.’ (So it’s no longer a rhetorical question, but you get my point.)

Dave Cohen, comedian, scriptwriter and Writers Guild of Great Britain Committee member.