Max Headroom

Max Headroom was an 80's TV series that portrayed the media and how it works in a dramatic, futuristic way. The main character in the episodes is named Edison Carter. He is one of the best reporters in this time and he works for Network 23. Their main competition in this episode comes from Breakthru-TV. Breakthru-TV is faking terrorist attacks to draw ratings because they have “exclusive coverage”. In actuality, the attacks are on a miniature “terrorist studio” and not really taking place. That is until Network 23 finds out of this and reports that it was all a fake.

This episode illustrates a key concept of media literacy that deals most with media content. The antagonist in the episode was all about getting the ratings for either channel. What he was trying to do was make a deal with either network, whoever would pay, and give them “exclusive” coverage to the “terrorist attacks”, even though they were staged. The first to have coverage would then get the ratings the station would want and be happy with that. The thought of getting better ratings was more important than the actual message thus skewing the actual media content of the message.