"We watch the play and are tired of fake expressions. We are tired of fancy techniques. Truman's world can be said to be fake, but Truman himself is not fake at all. There is no script, no presentation. It may not be a masterpiece, but it is fake. Replacement. It is a true record of a person's life."
1. Media and People In the world of 1998, the wave of the Internet has not swept the whole world as it has entered the 21st century today. Traditional media such as television, radio and newspapers are occupying an important position in family life, profoundly transforming people's bodies and souls in every aspect.
The Truman Show in the movie is undoubtedly a great success and legend in the media field, and it is the genius work of director Christopher. The 5,000-unit filming throughout the day, the global broadcast, the giant film crew, and thousands of extras exposed the 30-year-old orphan named Truman's growth to the eyes of people all over the world. Truman, the real person, is ironic that since birth Truman has lived in a false world tailored just for him, an outright lie. People all over the world are deceiving him, only he himself is unaware. This is a collective "crime". The director, the entire crew, and even every audience in front of the TV are murderers. They use the media to manipulate Truman's life arbitrarily. Sadly, their lives are also "manipulated" by the media. write. The manipulation of the crew is reflected in their physical and psychological imprisonment on Truman. Taoyuan Township, this beautiful and dreamy town is a "cage" tailored for Truman. The crew cannot directly interfere with Truman's actions. They induce Truman to follow their "script" through various psychological cues. Step by step interpretation of the life course.
When he was a child, he kept extinguishing Truman's enthusiasm for adventure, and even created the illusion of his father's drowning, leaving a psychological shadow on Truman; when he was a teenager, he destroyed Truman's love and made him feel disheartened to marry someone he didn't love at all. ; When he was young, when Truman decided to leave, the people around Truman tried to empathize with him with love, family affection, and friendship, so that he could dispel his thoughts.
All of this is to make Truman a "qualified" reality TV actor, bringing wonderful stories to the audience every day and catering to the audience's interests. On the surface, Truman has enough autonomy to dominate his own life, but this autonomy is based on the premise of not violating the director's script, and even at the cost of inhibiting the development of personal nature and sacrificing the right to pursue freedom of love. . Truman's world looks huge, but it's actually just the narrow screen of the TV. It is the "darling" of the media era, and also the "product" of the media era. There is an invisible thin line in front of Truman and the audience in front of the TV. The audience can easily change the thin line as long as they gently touch the thin line. Truman's life.
As the audience, they not only created great profits for the program, but also thoroughly enjoyed the process of consuming Truman's life. They spy on Truman's every move openly and openly, and comment on Truman's words and deeds. For example, the two waitresses in the bar were discussing whether Truman loved his wife, and the guests were betting on whether Truman would eventually escape. From beginning to end, the audience did not treat Truman as an equal individual, with no respect and no mercy, and their highest pursuit was to satisfy their curiosity and fun. When they saw Truman fighting the wind and waves, the audience was heartbroken; when they saw Truman saying goodbye to them, the audience burst into tears. Well, this is really a touching story of the male protagonist breaking through all obstacles with courage and wisdom, and finally gaining freedom and a new life. So let's see what other shows are putting on, shall we? The audience was not really moved by the "person" Truman, nor did they have a conscience to find out, and were ashamed and angry for this immoral behavior. They were only moved by seeing a twists and turns and brilliant story, and moved to satisfy their inner sense of sublime. They were moved by themselves, that's all. After being moved, of course, I devote myself fully to the next story. As the biggest dominator behind the scenes of "Truman's World", the audience is also drawn by this thin thread and willingly becomes the prisoner of this world. They paid attention to Truman's every move, poured countless hours and emotions into it, and lived consciously and unconsciously in accordance with the values and lifestyles displayed in Truman's world. Buying the products in the advertisements embedded in the play. They are ardent fans. Truman is being manipulated without knowing it, and there is a class of people who are willing to be dominated in this game. The most prominent figure is Truman's wife Meryl, who highly praised "The Truman World" and enjoys the process of expressing her beauty in front of the camera. The huge influence of the media has made Meryl a household name. distorted her values. She would rather live with someone she doesn't love at all, speaking stiffly to the camera about advertisements, than living a normal life.
Truman's father, obeying the director's arrangement to "die", after living in a downturn, broke into the world of Truman for a life without food and clothing, and there is no trace of "father's love" from beginning to end. Truman's best friend, Ma Long, swears faithfully in front of Truman, and all he does is deceive and hurt Truman. As for those extras, they are like puppets wearing masks, running numbly in order to make Truman's world function normally. In the communication process of Truman's world-media-audience, the media profoundly transforms the world under the camera and the audience off-screen with its hidden and powerful force. First of all, it is a prerequisite for the existence of Truman's world. Without the rapid development of media technology, Truman's life cannot be recorded in detail in the lens; without the popularization of television media and the development of satellite technology, the program cannot be broadcast globally broadcast within the range. The media is also the means used by the crew to control Truman, a way to construct a world that is almost the same as the real world, so that Truman lived in it for more than 30 years without realizing it.
The media is also a bridge for the audience to communicate with the Truman world and a channel for feedback. In the movie, the audience will express their attitude towards this reality show through the media, and their attitude indirectly affects Truman's fate. In the movie, when Truman's world had to be shut down, the overwhelming questioning from audiences all over the world forced the program team to continue the live broadcast, and they had to admit that their praise and support for Truman's escape was also due to the fact that Truman escaped. key factor in the success of the struggle against the gate. After all, this is a plot that the audience is happy to see. Under the circumstance that the show has been difficult to continue, there is no reason for the director not to follow the people's heart and let the story end successfully. The roles played by the media in the film are diverse. They are not only tools of manipulation, but also weaken people's sense of value, dignity, and independence, and enhance their commodity attributes. Truman is an obscure clerk in the movie, but in the real world he is a mass consumer product. The audience in front of the TV is frantically consuming all the derivatives of Truman's world; the huge investment of advertisers makes the actors bluntly insert advertisements in the play, which looks funny and funny.
The pervasiveness of the TV media makes the audience feel that everything and everything on the screen can be consumed without any moral heaviness. This is the paralyzing effect of the media. What shines in Truman's world is not personal value, but the command and obedience kneeling at the feet of fame and fortune. The media also make people gradually lose their emotional experience in the real world, and pay more attention to the virtual world than to their own living conditions. It is not difficult to see from the obsession of the audience members who appear repeatedly in the movie that their daily lives revolve around this reality show. Their attention to the fate of Truman is no less than that of Truman himself.
When they saw Truman's courage and desire for freedom in the process of resistance, their hearts were also touched, but what happened after that? They did not reflect on the current state of life, nor did they have the courage to walk out of the mediocre and boring life. But just switch to other programs and continue a similar life. Truman stepped out of the cage that imprisoned his body and mind, but the audience fell deeper and deeper into it, unable to extricate themselves.
2. Media and Society One of the most important events in the 20th century was the emergence and development of television media. As early as the mid-1960s, the German sociologist W. Ringers called the invention of television, atomic energy and space technology "three epoch-making events in human history", and believed that television was "a shock to modern times". One of the three forces of society".
Schramm once introduced the relationship between American life and mass media in his introduction to "Communications": The average American spends almost a quarter of his waking time on these media, and this number continues to grow. . Ninety-eight percent of U.S. households have televisions, and those televisions are on for an average of seven hours a day. This situation is not a special phenomenon in the United States. In any country in the world, access to mass media is an important part of modern life. It is undeniable that the mass media represented by television have exerted extensive and profound influence on all aspects of politics, economy and culture of modern society. What kind of impact the emergence and development of mass communication will bring to human beings and society has long been the focus of debate among social scientists. Around this issue, there are roughly two different viewpoints in the early West: one is a positive attitude based on "optimistic expectations", and the other is a worried attitude based on "skepticism". After the Second World War, the tendency of media content to be sensationalized, superficial and vulgar was even more exacerbated. What is reflected in "The Truman World" is undoubtedly the director's invisible criticism and worry about the contemporary mass media. Japanese scholar Kiyotaro Shimizu believes that modern society is a society dominated by "mass copying of information". On the one hand, the mass media acts as a "profit-making enterprise" and, on the other hand, acts as a "propaganda agency" to drown the broad audience in superficial information. In the "flood", they lost the spirit of rational thinking and criticism of important public affairs; mass communication is similar to a kind of "psychological violence" to modern people. All of these can be found in the movie. The audience who watched The Truman Show in front of the TV fascinatedly, the actors who were too deeply involved in the play, and the group aphasia of the tragedy that caused Truman's life. However, the genius of "The Truman World" is that it criticizes but does not completely deny it, and worries but does not completely despair. Truman in the movie has innocent and clear eyes like a child, and a childlike and cheerful smile. He used to tear off the pictures from the magazine and put on the face of his lover over and over again; no matter how beautiful the life of Taoyuan Township, he still has to look for it. That little-known island - Fiji. At the end of the story, he bowed deeply to the audience "Incase I don't see you. Good afternoon, good evening and good night."
It is enough to illuminate the hearts of every audience in front of the screen, making everything fake and dirty seem so bleak. The existence of Truman proves that the mass media is not an invincible beast. It is true that the media has contributed to the weaknesses of human nature, but there must be something more important in this world that gives us enough courage to get rid of the shackles of the media. For Truman, it was his love for Sylvia. For us, maybe something else. In the film, the false world Taoyuan Township constructed by the media was compared with the real world many times. When Christopher, the director of the Truman Show, persuaded Truman not to leave, he repeatedly emphasized that "the outside world is dirty, Taoyuan Township. It is an ideal world and an ideal environment to live in." Christopher's words came from his own observation of the real world, which may be extreme. But we can also spy on the social style at that time from his extremely disgusting attitude towards the real world.
Truman's life is manipulated by the media, so why wouldn't people in the real world live like walking corpses under the manipulation of the media? In society, people with low taste, intrigue, and pursuit of fame and fortune abound. The environment of Taoyuan Township is like a paradise, and the interpersonal relationship is extremely harmonious, which forms a sharp contrast with the dirty world.
The movie does not point out the situation after Truman walked out, but we can guess that Truman, as a world-class star, will definitely be sought after by various media and fans around the world when he first came to the real world. His living condition will still be exposed. After a period of time, when people lose interest in Truman, Truman, as an outdated star, may encounter various difficulties in the process of adapting to the real society. He may hate the real society and miss the simple days of Taoyuan Township. Even his love might not last to the end. These are all parts of the movie that are not detailed and left to our own imagination. Regardless of whether Truman considered the price he would pay for his escape, he made the decision to leave resolutely, presumably with the firm belief that he would never come back. Truman's struggle is not only his personal struggle, but the struggle of quite a few people against the hypocritical world constructed by the media. False beauty and cruel reality, which is more important? Truman used his struggle to tell us the answer.
The world constructed by the media is full of strong idealistic feelings, which makes people yearn for it. But falsehood is falsehood, and can never be compared with the reality of the ground. The false world is often fragile and vulnerable. When a doubt arises, the whole world will crumble until it falls apart; even if the real world is riddled with holes, it will perseverely exist. What's more, there are many beautiful things in the real society, and the media do not always play the role of villains, and their positive significance for spreading human civilization is irreplaceable. If there is no media, how will Truman's story inspire and comprehend countless people for more than ten years.
In the final analysis, mass communication is a powerful large-scale social information system with the development of communication technology. What kind of influence this information system exerts depends on the people who use and manage it, and the society in which it is located. Institutions and the missions these institutions give it. three. It is hoped that we live in an era of mass communication, in which media such as newspapers, radio, television, books, and Internet portals have penetrated into all levels and corners of society. Mass dissemination of information pervades our social life like the air. Contemporary people who cannot deal with the media will lose the precious opportunity to communicate with the world.
My ideal relationship between media and people should be that the media can be used to the maximum extent by people, people have the ability to obtain useful information from the content of the media, and at the same time people can not rely on contemporary media. A harmonious relationship between people and the media means mutual improvement and mutual promotion. People learn knowledge, communicate with others, and have fun through media, and media technology can progress and innovate with the times. In the process of dealing with the media, people should always be in the dominant position and be wary of being controlled by the media. As far as the whole society is concerned, the media that can play a positive role will promote the process of human civilization, and the reactionary media that promote the Sith regime will inevitably lead to the destruction of mankind. After all, the media is just a tool without self-feeling and self-awareness, the only difference is who it speaks for. The media should not suppress the natural development of individuals, as shown in "The Truman World", causing panic and anxiety in the entire society, and people's desires are infinitely inflated. The society must give the media enough tolerance, but not blindly condone it. The media should be a beacon in the dark, dispel the fog of the whole society, let us see the road ahead, and let us see our inner aspirations clearly.
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