The Matrix, Pleasantville, and The Truman Show.

Essay by chexCollege, UndergraduateA+, August 2003

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The Truman Show is a movie about a man who is held captive inside a world that revolves around him. Truman Burbank, the main character has been raised on a huge TV Soundstage filled with hidden cameras and actors who pretend to be his friends and family. This world is one where he is literally trapped in his own life by the surreal existence in which he has been forced to spend every day of his thirty years. Since the day he was born Truman Burbank's life was controlled from a huge control panel in the sky; controlled by a manipulation of how life should be, in a perfect world. At the hands of such manipulators we see how the role of media in our world persuades us into living in a way that we would otherwise not intend to. It is quite often oblivious to all of us, the effect that media has on us.

However, where ever we look the effects of media have altered the coarse of living. The clothes we wear, the sports we play, the music we listen to and our political opinions, are all aspects that are influenced by the media.

Advertising is the chief culprit in many cases. We often see others responding to the effects of media whether it is consciously or subconsciously. As victims of commercialism, we then respond to those who have been effected by media. An example of this is the clothes that we wear. We see people on television and else where, looking trendy and we respond to it by going out and aiming to look the same way, therefore buying the clothes. There are many devices that aid in media's effect on people. Television, radio, newspapers, billboards; magazines and the Internet are all forms of...