I. The movie Network was released in
November of 1976. It starts off with the introduction of Howard Beale, a
newscaster from the UBS television network talking with his boss Max Schumacher
about how he is being fired for having low ratings. The next thing we see is
Beale giving a newscast announcing he will be killing himself the next Tuesday.
UBS goes into a frenzy trying to recover from Beale’s crazy ranting. Diana
Christensen from the programming division sees Howard as a gold mine for
ratings and shares. They create the Howard Beale Show with Beale “denouncing
the hypocrisies of [their] times.”[i] Meanwhile, Diana is
creating another show based on a terrorist group filming their acts of
terrorism. Beale is a hit, until he announces that the CCA (owners of UBS) were
making a deal with Arabs and tells the American people to revolt against the
deal. The owner of CCA, Mr. Jensen, approaches Beale and gives a speech about
how there is no America or democracy, only money and business, and he convinces
Howard that that is what he must tell the audience. Because of Beale’s change
in opinions, his ratings drop and the company has to decide what to do with
him. A group of leaders from the company come to the conclusion they will have
him assassinated by the terrorist group they are doing another show on and
having that be the opening episode for the new season. Network ends with a somber segment of them deciding to kill Beale
and cutting to the actual event of him being assassinated live.
Right after it was released a review in The New York Times said, “Network can be faulted for going too far and not far enough,
but it’s also something that very few commercial films are these days. It’s
alive. This, I suspect, is the Lumet drive. It’s also the wit of performers like
Mr. Finch, Mr. Holden, and Miss Dunway. As the crazy prophet within the film
says of himself, Network is vivid and
flashing. It’s connected into life.”[ii]
Another review from that same year said, “… [It] seems to be telling us is that
television itself is like…An economic process in the blind pursuit of ratings
and technical precision, in which excellence is as accidental as banality.”[iii]
II. There are many media ethical dilemmas in
this movie. At least these five: 1) “Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity”; 2) “Remain
free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage
credibility”; 3) “Avoid misleading re-enactments or staged news events. If
re-enactment is necessary to tell a story, label it”; 4) “Avoid undercover or
other surreptitious methods of gathering information except when traditional
open methods will not yield information vital to the public. Use of such
methods should be explained as part of the story”; and 5) “Examine your own
cultural values and avoid imposing those values on others.”[iv]
These are shown in many ways. 1) They were willing to put Howard
Beale on air spouting his anger and rage because it was giving them ratings and
“he [was] articulating the popular rage.” 2, 3, and 4 were all shown through
the making of the show based on the terrorist group. They were getting the
video clips through surreptitious methods; the video was given to a third party
who gave it to them to avoid associating with criminals. Also, Diana came right
out and said they would add drama behind the short, real clips of the terrorist
acts. The network was “getting around the FBI by doing the show in
collaboration with the news division.”[v] Finally ethical issue 5)
Mr. Jensen fed Howard Beale his corporate mindset of no America or democracy,
only businesses. He was imposing those ideas on Beale who in turn imposed them
on the audience. In fact, the Howard Beale show from the beginning was imposing
Beale’s opinions on anyone who would listen.
III. In my lecture I will be hitting on the
ethical issues discussed above as well as how the culture of the time biased
how the journalists were framed in the movie, what media effects theories were
portrayed, the view from the movie on the role and impact of journalists in
society which is very closely related to the media effects theories. Also I had
a few things from the movie that stood out to me that I will talk about such as
how ratings were more important than the well-being of human beings and even
criminal acts. Finally I will look at how (or if) the ethical issues were
resolved.
IV. Journalists were framed in two separate
categories, the older and younger generations. A good example of the first is
the character Max Schumacher who cared about his friend Howard Beale’s
well-being and sanity and didn’t want him to be allowed to rant like a madman
on live television. He also believed in good quality, ethical newscasts with
the truth being the only choice in what was aired. On the other hand was Diana
Christensen, a young workaholic whose main focus was ratings, shares, and
popularity. She saw television as show business and was ok with blurring the
lines and creating shows instead of news. The ethical dilemmas are framed
mostly by the younger generation of journalists crating new shows based only on
what would be a hit.
V. The consequences of the journalists’ actions
were extreme. Howard Beale created a mass following that would have done
anything he told them. In the film he gave a speech where he told people to get
mad at the world and what was going on around them, at everything. He told them
to open their windows and yell, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take
it anymore!” Also after the CCA deal with the Arabs was known Beale announced
it and told everyone to write telegrams to the White House telling them to stop
the deal and the public did, the White House was flooded with telegrams about
the deal. The consequences of the network’s actions were a little harder to
see. One final consequence is that because of what they created with Beale,
they saw the only way out of the Howard Beale show was to kill him, an innocent
man died because of their obsessions with ratings and publicity.
VI. The culture of the time is explained well
with Dependency Theory. This greatly influenced how the journalists were
framed. When this film was released in 1976 television was already the most
popular and influential mass medium. Audiences were becoming increasingly
dependent on what they saw on TV. The journalists in the movie were very aware
that audiences were aware and depending on what they heard and saw and would
take anything on the TV set as truth. Audiences were “dependent on media (a) to
understand the social world; (b) to act meaningfully and effectively in
society; and (c) to find fantasy and escape or diversion.”[vi]
VII. In conclusion the film Network was a satirical but realistic
rendition of television in 1976. Many ethical dilemmas were portrayed including
imposing cultural ideas on the masses and associating with those who would
damage integrity and credibility. The journalists were portrayed in mostly a
negative, ratings-driven light which emphasized the lack of ethics when
creating the new shows. The culture at the time created a bias with how the
journalists were shown, and the media effect theory of Dependency was a major
theme; it was what the Howard Beale show was founded on.
VII. Quiz Questions
- How were the journalists
portrayed?
A) As cold, hard newscasters bring the truth to the American people.
B) As greedy, rating minded businessmen who saw TV as show business.
C) All of the above. - What media effects
theory is shown?
A) Magic Bullet
B) Dependency Theory
C) All of the above. - What are some of the
ethical issues that were challenged?
A) Show good taste. Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity.
B) Examine your own cultural values and avoid imposing them on others
C) All of the above. - What was the mentality
of Mr. Jensen?
A) America and democracy are alive
B) The only nations in the world were businesses.
C) All of the above. - What ethical issue did
Mr. Jensen incorporate into the Beale show?
A) Imposing his cultural values on others.
B) Plagiarizing.
C) All of the above.
True or False?
- Agenda setting theory
was portrayed in the movie. False
- The culture of the
time was one where TV was very much a mass medium. True
- The ethics issues were
resolved. False
- Howard Beale was
killed to help another show have a “sensational season opener.” True
- One of the ethics issues challenged was to
never plagiarize. False
[i] Chayefsky, Paddy, "Network,"
Written by Paddy Chayefsky, November 1976, DVD.
[ii] Canby,
Vincent. "Chayefsky’s 'Network' Bites Hard As a Film Satire of TV
Industry." New York Times, November 15, 1976.
[iii] Ebert, Roger. "Network." Chicago Sun-Times,
January 01, 1976. rogerebert.suntimes.com (accessed December 1, 2012).
[iv] Chicago Headline Club Chapter of Society
for Professional Journalists, "Ethics Advice Line for Journalists."
Accessed December 4, 2012. http://www.ethicsadvicelineforjournalists.org.
[v] Chayefsky,
Paddy, "Network," Written by Paddy Chayefsky, November 1976, DVD.
[vi] Stanley
J. Baran, Introduction to Mass Communication Media Literacy and Culture,
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012), 368-370.
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