Max Headroom...Is This How We See Media Today?

The show Max Headroom seems funny to us today…the clothes, the props, and the technology have an outdated look when compared with society’s current style. Despite its odd outer appearance, this short-lived science fiction show, which aired in the 1980s, still has relevance to today’s problems that we face when we encounter the media.

On January 30, my Mass Communications class watched one of the episodes, War. The episode shows a concerned Network 23 board, trying to figure out what to do to increase ratings during a sweeps period. The network is in competition with BreakThru TV, which boosts up its ratings by showing exclusive news coverage of a terrorist explosion. Meanwhile, Network 23’s ratings continue to fall as it shows dancing poodles during this critical time for the station.

Then the plot thickens as enterprising journalist Edison Carter, who works for Network 23, tries to uncover the truth behind the “news story.” He watches as BreakThru TV continues to push their exclusive coverage of this story, and asks himself, “Since when has news been entertainment?” The question describes one of the major issues dealt with in the show concerning media messages. This statement suggests that sometimes news station will start to blur the lines between different types of media messages, in this case, that of news and entertainment.

As the story enfolds, Carter eventually realizes that the whole story is a scam, a deal between an individual reporter and the terrorist group, plus that a Network 23 anchorwoman was already onto the story. However, Network 23 doesn’t know all this, so the board agrees to buy BreakThru TV’s coverage of the story in effort to increase ratings. A board adviser says it best, “Morals are one thing, but ratings are everything.”

Although everything is resolved in the end and the truth is revealed, what does the quote suggest about the media? The quote seems to question the motives of television executives when putting shows on the air. In order to become more media literate, it is up to us to see past the story and to see why the programmers do what they do, which is often times to get higher ratings and in turn make more money. Despite this show being aired in the 1980s, the portrayal of the media in the show is still relevant for today...we can't always trust the media.