I spent the latter half of my summer getting back into the habit of watching television. As someone who notoriously watches light-hearted TV (i.e. sitcoms, reality TV, or what you might call “background noise for while I’m doing my homework TV”), I decided it was time to watch a more serious show. Flipping through HBOmax, I came across Succession, a dark-humored drama following a power-hungry family that oversees a multibillion-dollar media conglomerate, Waystar Royco. While the show is meant to be a serious critique, it also satirically comments on the actions of the 1% and the ups and downs of the media industry.
As one can assume, the show also follows the many scandals that arise from within Waystar Royco. With the intent of not spoiling anything about the show, it got me thinking about how media companies today navigate scandals, and whether or not their upholding of the “facts” exempts them from the scrutiny of the public eye. More importantly, it got me thinking about the difference between the priorities of large news organizations versus the priorities of smaller, not-for-profit organizations, and everything in between.
Working for a news organization, it’s important to us as members of The Stute to know the impact our news stories have on our readers and how our stories are being received. Outside the bubble of college newspapers, it’s vital for large media companies to understand the impact that their actions will have on their stock price, shareholders, and their brand. Of course, there also is great emphasis on the stories these news outlets produce, but their main focus is on how those stories impact their image. In that sense, at times, it’s nice to have less responsibility and have no impact on the markets. It’s important to sometimes take a step back and understand the interesting privileges we have as student reporters.
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