Network is director’s Sidney Lumet’s amazing stroke of genius depicting the hollow world of television journalism where entertainment and short-term ratings are more crucial than quality. It shows that all that matters in TV journalism is the ratings, no matter the quality at which they are received. Howard Beale, the aging UBS news anchor, has lost his once strong ratings share and so the network fires him. Beale reacts in an unexpected way, and that is ruthlessly manipulated and used by his boss.
Beale, once the popular news anchor of UBS, is seeing his fortunes slip lately. His best friend and head of network, Max, tells him that he has been given a two-week notice. Beale then anounces on national television that he will blow out his brains on TV in a week’s time. This enrages the network and they fire him immediately. But Beale says that he was not in his right mind and apologises for such behavior. The new boss, Diana, sees Beale as the universal remedy to the network’s decline in ratings.
She is interested in counter-establishment programming and launches a show featuring Beale. Diana is interested in ratings whereas Max wants to preserve his reputation as a news man with integrity and Beale tries to convince both of them that he is connected with higher powers which is making him seem insane. Diana feels that if these powers increase the network’s ratings so be it. Despite their outward differences, Diana and Max start a romance which mars Max’s conscience as he’s faithfully married for twenty-five years.
The movie brilliantly shows where today’s journalism is leading to. The hard reality is evident that all that matters today is the TRPs and not the quality that is bieng delivered to the audience. The fact that a lot of insanity and extra-ordinary features are attractive to the general public is used through out the television industry and no thought to its affect is given, only the fact that how many people watch a show is all that matters.
Regards,
Fatima Sayani
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