Manipulation In The Truman Show

You Are the Media: An Analysis on Advancing Media

One of the most interesting features about today’s media is that it connects many individuals in perplexingly short amounts of time. Through constant streaming, society has become extremely vulnerable by allowing themselves to be engrossed by the presented reality. The outcome is unsuspecting citizens that are mentally deformed by the adverse lies told to them. Gary Shteyngart exploits this reality through his successful novel, Super Sad True Love Story (2010) in which he creates a fictional world focusing on consumerism and commercialism. This fictive work creates an environment of secrecy in which the government actively displays more cover-ups and less controversial activity. Similarly, but to a much larger extent, Peter Weir’s film The Truman Show (1998) presents a city consisting of theatrical illusions surrounded by

deceit. The power of media effectively brainwashes the public by offering numerous distractions often altering society’s view on the world. Such fabrications result in civilization being ignorant, such as towards current issues discussed in the article “Does Paris Matter More Than Beirut?” (2015) by Justin Peters. Society has yet to learn that media’s masqueraded facts and constant manipulations, will lead to the lack of knowledge and abridgment of one’s individuality.
In the film and novel, media utilizes as a manipulative weapon, lying to the society’s inhabitants. Super Sad True Love Story is an embodiment of the close future current society is heading towards. Schteyngart satires the inane, hyper-sexualized culture that connects everybody in this destroyed world. The current generation phone has evolved into a device called an apparat for all the purposes of shopping, scanning, and “‘verballing’” (Schteyngart 43) their pornographic lives. Everyone continually rates (judges) other people based on personality and “fuckability” (Schteyngart 29) in the most vulgar terms conceivable. The media not only utilizes these tactics to get the citizens progressively involved in an activity, they also sexualize and corrupt the youth in the act. The only way for authorities, such as National Guards, to unlawfully continue their actions, is to bring massive attention into brands such as “JuicyPussy” or “AssLuxury” (Schteyngart 46). These females buy their way into the erotic nature of humanity through consumerism, persuaded by the vulgarity of these names. The media intends to keep out “minor” political matters by having citizens captivated in the expanding culture of hype-sexuallity.This sexual and vulgar tone correlates to how media directly affects the minds of young people who consist of most of the society. However, such notions are apparent in The Truman Show where society has become “bored with watching actors” who give “phony emotions” (Weir 00:00:19) and therefore create a fake reality enclosing a single person in a media-contrived world. Truman Burbank, who has been living inside a giant dome his entire life, has not figured that it is “merely controlled” (Weir 00:02:05). Christof, the mastermind behind the scenes, surrounds Truman with an unreal landscape that falsely portray realism towards him. To progressively better his ratings, Christof uses his omnipresence to indirectly control Truman’s actions. Both the director, Weir, and screenwriter, Niccol, bring the viewers’ attention to how much the media is willing to expand their fan base. Ironically, as Christof strips away all of Truman’s free will, he, himself, “guards your [his own] privacy” (Weir 01:02:47). Conversely, this ironic viewpoint is lost throughout various shows as audiences are giving credence to Christof’s fabricated world as it provides quality entertainment. The outliers who are against this regime are in minority. As Sylvia, Truman’s true love interest, believes Truman is a “prisoner” inside his “cell” (Weir 1:07:50), and tries to communicate who Christof truly is. However, the citizens disregard the idea even if they clearly comprehend it. These beings are so exceedingly deformed by the media that the entertainment and satisfaction overpowers justice immensely. This leads to the bitter certainty that “we [the disregarding society] accept the reality of the world [in] which we're presented” (Weir 01:06:13)
The inability to see past the media fabrications is the leading cause to a civilization being ignorant. Lenny Abramov and Eunice Park in Super Sad True Love Story see a protest “demanding better housing” “for transgendered youth” (Schteyngart 233). They believe that if uprisings still exist through all the media distortions “then we [they] weren’t finished as a nation just yet” (Schteyngart 233). The Truman Show develops this same notion when Truman begins to question “Who are you [Meryl, Truman’s wife] talking to?” (Weir 00:53:57) when Meryl tries to distract him by using product placement. In both these works, the protagonist see past what the media has presented them for what it truly is. This ultimately leads to the Paris attacks discussed in Peters article receiving a “banner headline”, while the Beirut bombings “dropped off the front page” (Peters 5). With unquestionable emphasis on Paris, “three-fourths of the front” (Peters 1) was given to Paris attacks that was “bigger, deadlier, and more sophisticated” (Peters 4) compared to Beirut. Considering the more “immediately accessible” English journalists, and the “Western media’s inherent Western bias” (Peters 4), it’s acceptable that Paris would be more conversed about its disaster. However, the difference between “downplaying” news and failing to report with the same “empathy and humanity” (Peters 4) is the real problem. Society has masqueraded facts that will only pertain to them, and not what is actually happening outside of the West. As citizens in western communities are manipulated by their local media networks to only focus on the Paris attacks, they are unknowingly avoiding similar drastic encounters to the rest of the world. This demonstrates how the media is able to brainwash citizens and thus scamming the populace.
As with many other forms of media, people are enriched by allowing themselves to be dominated by its motives.

To escape the invented world that is presented to society, creating a more critical distance is necessary. Instead of allowing the media to use civilization, understanding the meaning and effect it has on them will enhance their perception. This directly correlates to Super Sad True Love Story, in which the populace has to grow through a collapse to fully grasp what is wrong within its society. Similar to The Truman Show, as Truman tries to escape Christof’s manipulations, he is blocked at every turn. The movie hinting to the viewers that they have to take a mental journey to secure their freedom. These cases are evident in the issue of the Paris attacks, reported in the article “Does Paris Matter More Than Beirut?” as the only people that are wondering why Westerners do not seem to acknowledge Beirut are critics. The media therefore draws society in, able to easily deceive and manipulate. As a result, the illusions created by the people ought to be escaped solely by

themselves.