Representation
In this postmodern society, our lives are increasingly mediated by the media. The idea of the postmodern society can be defined by some of the major changes that have been taking place in society and culture during the last quarter of the twentieth century (Jones, 2008, p. 2). This is described as a society living in a new era that is characterized by a number of developments or changes. Here is five characteristics of a postmodern city, which are the ‘hyperreal’ city, ‘global’ city, ‘networked’ city, watched’ city and consumer city. Since the advancement of technology, it has increased our exposure to the media with the hundreds of channels that come with digital cable. Nowadays in postmodernism society, media provides us with entertainment, information, and comfort. In this article, I’m going to apply Truman show (1998) as a case study to explore how a space is represented in contemporary ‘postmodern’ societies in which our lived experience is increasingly mediated. Truman show is an example which reflects our postmodern society that represents reality to us. Truman Burbank lives happily in a small, and peaceful town called Seahaven. He has a good job, nice wife, nice neighbourhood and basically a happy life. In actual reality, the town of Seahaven is actually an extremely big film studio, full of cameras, filming the world’s most famous reality shows.
The Truman show is recorded and broadcasted to the entire world. Currently, films provide us with representation of society and the place is presented through media. Representational spaces is a space as directly lived through its associated images and symbols, and hence the space of ‘inhabitants’ and ‘users’ (Lefebvre, 1991, p.39). These are about how spaces are experienced and lived through so that people become places of meaning. It is based on people lived and experience around the world, such as their feelings, memories, relationships, the lives at home and so on. For instance, the city in Truman show...
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