Introduction: Crime and Deviance through the Lens of Popular Culture

Abstract

Weir's film The Truman Show tells the story of Truman Burbank, a man unaware of the fact that he has been the star of his own reality TV show since the day he was born. When a journalist asks Christof, the director of the show, how he has managed to keep this secret from Truman for so long, he replies: 'We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented. It's as simple as that.' Truman thinks he is an ordinary man living an ordinary life, but his entire world is a lie: the place where he lives is a television set with cameras hidden everywhere; everyone around him including his wife and friends are actors playing their roles. When he finally finds out the truth, he decides to break free from his comfortable mediated 'cage' and explore what lies beyond the world Christof and his team have built for him.