The Truman Show Media Manipulation

The Truman Show is an eye-opening film, directed by Peter Weiss, about how we, as humans, are controlled by the media – advertisements, the news, movies, Facebook and anything that can help with our escape from reality. Us humans only want excitement and happiness in life and the drama of TV is a perfect way to escape from our problems and find the life we always wanted. After all, what better way to live a ‘fulfilling’ life than to live someone else’s, right? The Truman Show helps us to understand the importance of reality and the lack of it in our lives.

The director used Christof, the ‘director’ of the show to symbolise the control media has over us all, Truman, the star of the show, with the life we wish ‘we’ had, and of course, the viewers, that symbolise the human population (us) who seem to do nothing but watch The Truman Show all day, every day; living no life of their own.

Essay Example on Truman Show Manipulation

The movie used the characters to symbolise our lives, and just ‘us’ as the human population in general. We have Christof who symbolises the media and the control it has over us, Truman who is the glorified character and the audience who does nothing but indulge in Truman’s life. Christof also symbolises TV industries and businesses, often commenting on contracts and ratings and including hidden advertising during the show. Christof uses manipulation and lies to control Truman and guarantee his alliance and ignorance, as well as the audiences respect; much like today’s media industries, especially big ones like in Hollywood.

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We allow ourselves to be sucked into these lies and empty promises of a better life much like the audience in the show; who is often shown wasting their entire lives by doing nothing but watching the Truman show. These camera shots of the audience symbolise our obsession with media and how the media has raked us into a trap that we don’t even know we are in. The audience doesn’t even notice their life passing t…