Network, 1976

May, 2023 | RYAN MCLAUGHLIN

Network is a 1976 film that was created to be a satirical and over the top take on news media.  At the top of the movie’s poster in bright, yellow words is the quote, “Prepare yourself for a perfectly outrageous motion picture”.  The film holds up well to this message by showing an extreme version of a television news network where its anchor named Howard Beale is allowed to go on insane rants to push up ratings and viewership numbers. 

The interpretation of this news network felt extravagant until I realized that our news in present times may not be all that different.  Unlike the film, we aren’t used to listening to news anchors yell at the top of their lungs saying, “I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!”  Also, we aren’t witnessing news anchors get assassinated on live TV.  Where the similarities come from is Network’s message of a decline in truth and values in the media, corporate greed, and a loss of humanity.  The news in Network devolved from a source of information to a show meant for entertainment.  Even though there was still a strong political message in Beale’s rants, the news network saw him as an opportunity to boost ratings and disposed of him when he was no longer needed.  We see something not too far off in modern media where news networks report on stories in ways made to entertain instead of focusing on showing information and objective facts.

Throughout the film there are various scenes that can be related to the Kantian ethical theory.  The principle idea behind Kantian ethics is that a good will comes from doing good in of itself with no outside motivations.  The executives of UBS, the media network in the film, believed that they were acting on good will.  They allowed Howard Beale to continue working when they originally wanted to fire him.  By allowing Beale to preach his message he was able to motivate people to want change.  This seems like a positive move by the network but in reality Beale was a man suffering mentally and the network abused him to drive up ratings and profits.  The assassination of Beale was the ultimate showing of the network's greed.  They never cared about Beale or his message and were just looking to make money. 

A more positive example of Kantian ethics in the film comes from the character Max Schumacher.  He was the head of the news division at UBS and was a close friend of Beale.  Unlike the rest of the company, Schumacher genuinely cared about Beale and what he was going through.  He wanted Beale pulled off the air when he realized that the act was going too far and even let Howard sleep in his apartment.  Schumacher didn’t have outside motivations for his treatment of Beale, he only wanted to help him because they were close friends and it was the right thing to do. 

A second ethical theory that applies to Network is virtue ethics.  This theory emphasizes the importance of doing good to have a virtuous identity.  Throughout the film there are a few examples of characters who believed that their actions were virtuous, one of them being Howard Beale.  He saw the ways he was inspiring people and started to think that he was some kind of supernatural figure meant to lead the people forward.  He was dubbed “The Mad Prophet of the Airwaves” for his striking commentary on political and economical issues.  While viewers were excited by his words, Beale was not in a good place mentally and his ideas were being used for profit by a broadcast network that did not agree with much of what he was saying. 

Max Schumacher is probably the most virtuous character in the film.  Schumacher made a major mistake and cheated on his wife with Diana Christensen, the head of programming at the network.  He later realizes how badly he screwed up hurting not only his wife, but other people around him.  While this is obviously a horrible thing that Schumacher has done, I think that his guilt over cheating is why he has virtue.  He was a good enough man to realize his mistakes and genuinely feel bad for them where other characters did not regret their actions.  Schumacher comes to this realization after seeing how much Diana had absorbed herself in work and trying to constantly find the next big thing.  She was so invested into her big ideas that she put all virtues aside when choosing to get Howard Beale off the air and replace him with a show about the group that ultimately kills him. 

It is also important to discuss the loss of values in television news that Network brings up. One of Howard Beale’s rants was about the decline of television and how it's all fake.  When watching a news program people expect to be informed and learn about recent events.  Ratings completely control how shows are developed.  If ratings are low then the company will do anything to get them back up.  This created a problem where the quality of news shown degrades in favor of adding some kind of entertainment factor or trying to get a certain reaction out of people.  This can cause misinformation or give people the wrong idea on a certain segment.

Network also raises questions on free will.  Free will questions if we are actually responsible for our actions.  The film addresses this by making the viewer question the effect of the media that they view.  Is the news we watch created to give us information or to entertain us?  How does the news we view affect the way we see other people and the world around us?  Network addresses this free will problem by showing what lengths the UBS network will go in order to make money.  They took advantage of Beale and manipulated the news program into something that focused less on news and more on being exciting. 

To conclude, Network is an over the top look at TV news that almost feels real.  Through the extreme moments the viewer can see the problems that come with ignoring the objectivity of news and trying to make an entertaining show out of it.  News should responsibly give people information that they can apply their own personal values towards.