Surveillance In The Truman Show

Surveillance is becoming increasingly integrated into human lives. Seemingly inconsequential minutiae like how long one spends in line at a grocery store or how many times a headline is clicked on a social media site are collected automatically by both public and private institutions. Whatever we do and wherever we go, there is likely some trace of it. This has led to great debates about the right to privacy, how much surveillance is too much, and under what circumstances surveillance is justifiable. Film and Television play important roles in these debates and in the way in which the public conceptualizes the utility and threat of surveillance more generally. Popular depictions include the sci-fi dramedy, The Truman Show, and detective dramas like Person of Interest. These texts appear to have conflicting ideas about

The film depicts the liberation of Truman Burbank, an average joe from a small island town off the Florida coast that appears straight out of a 1950s sitcom. His life seems too perfect to be true, and it is. Truman was adopted by a corporation, headed by Christof, the creator of a television show, also called The Truman Show, which is centered around Truman’s life. The show attempts to capture every uninterrupted moment of Truman’s life from the womb to death, to capture his real emotion and human behavior and broadcast it to millions of viewers. However, Truman is not aware that his entire life is fabricated. Not only are all his “loved ones” paid actors, but his entire existence is monitored by thousands of cameras and every aspect of his life is carefully controlled by Christof and his production team who go to great lengths to keep him clueless about the reality of his existence. In fact, his team kills off his “father” to make Truman afraid of the ocean and prevent him from venturing beyond his island hometown, which is housed in gigantic dome-shaped