This live broadcast included all aspects of the protagonist Truman's life. Except for sex, his diet, daily life, emotions, sorrows and joys were all unreservedly displayed in front of audiences around the world. Under this practice of the media, Truman's personal world has no privacy at all.
Although this is just a fictitious plot in a movie, we still have to think about some journalistic ethics issues that are directly or indirectly reflected in this movie.
Regarding the practice of reality TV show by the media in the film, the first issue involved is the issue of privacy. The so-called privacy refers to a situation in a citizen's personal life that he does not want to disclose to others or be known. The contents of privacy include personal health status, physical defects and disability, marriage and love experience, property status, personal diary, letters, living habits, and so on. And this right to privacy is a personality right, which belongs to the basic rights of citizens and is protected by law. The news media must respect the privacy of individuals. And the media in the film, in order to make a TV program, even broadcast all the details of a person's life live. This is a violation of the basic rights of citizens and a contempt for human dignity. In fact, the reality show’s trampling of the protagonist’s basic rights is not only reflected in the right to privacy, but also in the right to know.
In the film, the media made a huge set for this reality TV show-Taoyuan Island, where Truman lived. All the character environments on the set were set up for this reality show. Apart from Truman himself, everyone on Taoyuan Island is a staff member who knows the real situation or an extra in this reality show. They are controlled by the creators hiding behind the "Moon", following their arrangements, and together they construct a seemingly real "information environment" for Truman, which directly affects his perception of the world. The so-called "information environment" refers to the environment in a society that is constituted by individuals or groups of possible information and its dissemination activities. The famous American journalist Lippman believes that modern society is becoming larger and more complex. Due to the limited scope of actual activities, energy and attention, it is impossible for people to maintain experience of the entire external environment and numerous affairs related to him. Sexual contact, in matters beyond their own personal perception, people can only understand through various "news supply agencies." In the film, we saw that the media not only acted as Truman’s "news supply agency" — of course, Taoyuan Island also has news agencies that provide news on and around Taoyuan Island, and of course it was forged for Truman — it was also in fact against him. The entire external environment and numerous affairs related to him that can be touched by the scope of activities are provided fictitiously, so that Truman can completely live in a "mime environment". However, this "mime environment" seems to have made a wonderful reality TV show, a "great" artwork. But this reality TV show itself is a deception of Truman, a direct trampling on Truman's right to know, and a serious violation of the professional ethics of the news media.
In the film, this reality TV show was broadcast by only a few people who criticized it, and most people took a positive attitude and enjoyed it. This is the responsibility of the media to distort the moral concepts of the masses in society. The media has the responsibility of presenting and clarifying social goals and values, and it has the same guiding role as parents to children to the general public. And through the film, we can see that the social masses are affected by the media and have ignored Truman's rights as an individual-although in the end, when Truman resolutely walks out of Taoyuan Island, they will also cheer for their new life. At least it can be said that their values were distorted for a long time.
Generally speaking, the media is the chief culprit in this reality TV show's violation of human rights. And such disregard of professional ethics and social responsibility, which imposes a false information environment on Truman, affects his perception of the world and violates his human rights for many reasons.
First of all, the professionalism and moral cultivation of the main creators of the programs in the media. In the film, the director of the reality show is the director of this reality show. His values are completely distorted. For the sake of TV shows and what he calls "truth", he completely disregards Truman's personal rights. When Truman was about to flee Taoyuan Island, he ordered a huge wave to frighten Truman away, completely disregarding his life and death. Although he finally clarified his own values in the dialogue with Truman: "The outside world is as false as I gave you, has the same lies, and the same fraud..." But he ignored the most important point, he did not Truman was given the right to choose. So his moral knowledge is selfish and deformed.
If the moral cultivation of the creative staff is the subjective reason, then objectively, the side effects of high technology are also one of the reasons. In the film, the huge set, the use of more than 5,000 cameras, etc. are all achieved by the advanced development of science and technology. It is precisely with such a technological foundation that the broadcast of this masterpiece reality TV show can be realized.
In addition, commercial forces will also have an impact on this reality TV show, such as the hidden advertisements flooding the live broadcast. However, this only has an impact on the content of the program, and does not have too much impact on the occurrence of live broadcast events-although whether or not commercial organizations provide financial sponsorship in the preliminary planning will largely affect the implementation of reality TV shows. But not much is reflected in the film.
In short, the various problems reflected in "The World of Trumen" are worthy of reference and reflection by journalists and researchers.
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