This particular depiction of the media is not a very kind one from Hollywood. No character is very kind or caring, except for Max, but even he has his moments like the affair with his wife. It shows the broadcasting company as a company that doesn't care what it's showing, just as long as people are watching.
You first notice this when Max gets upset that they want to keep Howard on even though he is no longer giving the news. It shows that these people don't really care if the public gets the news stories, they only care if people are entertained and watching. They are depicted as people who will stop at nothing to get the ratings they seek.
A man begins having a nervous breakdown, one would hope that the news media wouldn't exploit that for higher ratings. But some could argue that news corporations are all about just that, exploiting the news to boost their own viewership. Sure not maybe to the sensationalist attitudes on the movie, but I believe to an extent.
The conglomerations are also depicted as bad people as evidenced by Robert Duvall's character Hackett. He doesn't care about anything or anyone just as long as revenue is up. I wouldn't be surprised if many companies were like that today. Although I doubt they have people killed if their ratings went low, or else Jay Leno would be a dead man.
I don't know if the film is accurate, or if it is trying to be accurate. But it is prophetic. Sure we aren't killing people for low ratings, or keeping mad men on the air, but we do love our rawness and real life (as evidenced by the increasing amount of reality television.) But the film has a lot to say about broadcasting, and it says it eloquently and sharply and it is worth hearing. Accurate or not.
Bibliography for project:
Network. Dir. Sidney Lumet. Perf. WIlliam Holden, Faye Dunaway, Robert Duvall
and Peter Finch. United Artists and MGM, 1976. DVD.
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