Media Meditation #9: Extra Credit - The Truman Show

'The Truman Show' is a fascinating movie about a guy named Truman that has been living a 'fake' life as an actor in a TV series. He was the only character that was real and his wife, friends and his job were all part of the show until one day when he wanted to get out and experience something new, he discovers the whole truth to his life.

This movie ironically produced by Hollywood shows how the media shapes and manipulates our life everyday. It has become so powerful that it is nearly impossible to act against it. As Professor Williams likes to put it, the media 'massages' information in a way that it manipulates public opinion.


It is fascinating that media has such a big influence on people's lifes and the way they shape their opinion. But if you think about it from your own experience how many times have you heard something on the radio or picked up a magazine where the cover page said something like "Hugh Hefner goes to jail". ( I made that up)
You will probably call one of your friends up and say "dude did you hear Hef went to jail". It is not hard to convince people to believe something and no one wants to make the effort to research a specific topic to find out if it is true or not. It is much easier to just believe it.


Going back to the great example of Truman who was trapped in a fake world his entire life. This movie is a wake up call to a lot of people that the media is influencing their lifes more than you might want it to. But how do you change that? Can you even change it?

Here is a short clip of "The Truman Show' when he finds out that he has been living as a TV series character.



Truman makes the decision to leave his 'life' behind and go out there in the real world. This clip shows a great use of reality construction because he had just found out that his entire life was not even real. Card stacking and and production techniques also influence this movie to how it is perceived today.

As we have learned in class Public Relations has a great influence on media and how news are being communicated. I found an article that explains PRs role in relation to the media. Check it out

So my question is: How do we change the way Public Relations and Media influence our daily life? This is a very intersting topic and if I had a lot of free time I would definately research the postive and negative effects that media has on me, a regular, average college student.