An Analysis of Accidental Hero

In some point, Gale Gayley (Geena Davis) and the rest of the production staff of Channel 4 have become unethical in their profession. All they wanted was to get the highest ratings, and as they hoped for it, they covered stories even without digging for the truth. As long as it makes them popular, they do not bother whether what they were feeding the public was accurate or not. Driven by their selfish reasons, they use their stories as tools to gain credibility, not as vehicles to present the truth.

They think that ratings are everything. They have become preys to their illusions of winning the competition for the top ratings. Competition has gotten too much of them, causing them to create a vision of the media practitioners as wild animals in the hunt.

Moreover, out of too much professionalism, the media practitioners in the movie took the scope of their reports seriously without being mindful of their subject's emotional being. This was best exposed to us in the first parts of the film, when a business executive was trying to jump from a building. Gayley and her camera operator were able to capture the whole ordeal, but they did not do anything to save the poor man's life. They were only after the ratings they would be receiving, which show us that they are too greedy for fame and success. Gayley's uncompassionate remark after the man's suicide even tops it all - that “her job was not to save people's lives, but to bring the news to the public.

We then realize that their eagerness to attract the public and to get the most out of everything is not ethical anymore. Their race fro the best has caused them to step into people's lives and they are becoming an insult to people along the way.

True, they get what they want, but they gain it because they have the money and the power. In addition, because of the power that the media have, they could easily influence people with their scope, even if there is no truth behind everything.