• What type of place is Seahaven?
Seahaven is an artificial paradise created by Christoff to serve as the set of the Truman Show, a reality TV programme in which everyone but Truman is a paid actor, with only Truman unaware that he has lived in a TV set all his life. Being a seaside town, it ensures Truman would never want to leave due to his fear of water. On the surface, everything is bright and cheerful; no one seems to ever worry about anything, it is quaint, quiet, untouched. It is an island utopia for Truman alone in the sense that to him, everyone is perpetually happy and there are virtually no problems in his life. In other words, Seahaven is perfect, as labelled in the movie, “The best place on Earth”.
• In what ways does it fit in with ‘The American Dream’?
It fits in with “The American Dream” because it provides Truman with all the material needs required to be ‘living the American Dream’: a loyal wife, a stable job, a large house with a garden, a car, etc. It is a depiction of life in the American Dream, the life that everyone strives for in order to attain happiness. The irony is that Truman himself is not satisfied with this ‘American Dream’ that he is living out, constantly yearning to leave the town.
Also, this perfect life is characterized by numerous product placements, like focus on the products that Truman uses, which in a way contributed to his “perfect “life. In a way, the movie tries to sway the opinion of the “viewers” of the Truman Show that to attain this perfect life, where everything is peaceful and nice, they should try to live like how people in Seahaven, so people would in an attempt to achieve and attain this perfect world, as depicted by Seahaven, to achieve “The American Dream”, so product placement in this show would strongly convince these viewers to actually try these products, under the impression that it is the best product.
• Think of a specific scene in which this is illustrated well and comment on the effect.
This is clearly seen through Truman’s wife, Meryl’s constant blatant advertising of products she uses, like how she advertises the lawnmower, the coffee she is going to make, or even the new all-in-one kitchen tool she uses. This form of advertising is really blatant, but by advertising and commenting on all the products merits, and the effect on Truman’s life after using these products, being a “perfect” life, it does have an effect on viewers where they would be convinced to try and buy these products, in order to actually achieve a better improved life, yearning for the “perfect” life, under the impression that through using these products, they can achieve Truman’s “perfect” life such as that in Seahaven where everything is virtually perfect. Thus, through this advertising in the Truman Show, it can help increase sales and thus, profits for these product companies and advertisers.
• What messages do you think the makers of the reality TV programme are trying to communicate? Why?
The reality TV programmes are trying appeal to the viewers emotionally. The Truman show has been going on for almost 30 years. Viewers have watched him since the day he was born. Thus, they have grown attached to him and the show. People are interested to see how this young man has actually lived in a massive studio for all his life. The emphasis of the show is on intense emotionality, exaggeration and sensationalism. This is how the producers of the show are able to secure its viewership. Such a programme is typically driven by three common elements: profits, education and entertainment. The main aim of producing such a show is obvious, which is to make the largest profits out of it. After all, it is a commercialized world we are living in.
The makers of the reality show are trying to make the audience realize how the media have been a great part of their lives and how they may have been influenced by it unconsciously. This may perhaps make the viewers more aware of these advertising methods and not be easily persuaded to purchase products.
• How does reality TV / the media in general influence us in a similar way?
Reality TV is said to be reality but in actual fact, some of them are planned. In some shows, the participants are coached to act in certain ways by off-screen handlers. The events on screen are sometimes manipulated through editing and other post-production techniques. Types of reality TV include game shows, talk show or even documentaries. These TV shows gives the public misconceptions that the events are factual. In this way, reality is blurred between what is real and what is false.
Some shows have faced speculation that the participants themselves are involved in fakery, acting out storylines that have been planned in advance by producers. It is a misnomer, a purportedly unscripted drama rather than a show reflecting real life scenarios. These Reality TV programmes affect and change the perceptions of the public in terms of interpersonal relations, comprising "sexuality", "courtship", "love" and "marriage". All these ideas are made to become popular fallacies.
Besides, Reality TV deals at times, deals with issues which capitalize on and celebrate the human race’s ‘worst qualities’, like greed, selfishness and voyeurism etc. It has been identified that reality TV programmes have a huge potential to develop “cult followings”. This is because such real life programmes that involve the ordinary people will leave a deeper impression on viewers as compared to dramas. Ordinary folks may think that the reality shows are telling a story similar to their own lives and thus, appeal to them emotionally.
We may develop the mindset that “since this is reality TV, this is the way we should live.” And to feed this mindset, we might tune in to the programme more, thus, reality TV will have a great impact on our lives. We might find it even more feasible to achieve similar lifestyles to what they see in reality TV shows, and thus be even more influenced by reality TV shows and their content, making us more susceptible to product placement and advertisements, and more influenced by the mindsets and ideas the show portrays, largely shaping how we think, how we live and what we do in our daily lives, we are thus in a way controlled by the media as a result.
Done by: Abigail Ho, Ewen, Jonathan, Xue Qian, Ying Ying 09S07A
No comments:
Post a Comment