Thus, meta-reference triggers media-awareness within the recipient, who, in turn "becomes conscious of both the medial (or "fictional" in the sense of artificial and, sometimes in addition, "invented") status of the work" as well as "the fact that media-related phenomena are at issue, rather than (hetero-)references to the world outside the media.

While meta-reference as a concept is not a new phenomenon and can be observed in very early works of art and media not tied to specific purposes (e.g. Homer's invocation of the muses at the beginning of the Odyssey in order to deliver the epic better), the term itself is relatively new.

Notable discussions of meta-reference include, but are not limited to, William H. Gass's[4] and Robert Scholes's[5] exploration of metafiction, Victor Stoichita's examination of early modern meta-painting,[6] and Lionel Abel's[7] investigation of metatheatre.

The first study to underscore the problem resulting from the lack of cohesive terminology, as well as the necessity to acknowledge meta-reference as transmedial and trans-generic phenomenon, was published in 2007 by Hauthal et al.[8] Publications by Nöth and Bishara[9] as well as Wolf[10] followed suit, raised similar concerns, included case studies from various media, coined and helped establish the more uniform umbrella term meta-reference as define above.

[14] [emphases added]This is an example of explicit meta-reference because the text draws attention to the fact that the novel the recipient is reading is merely a fiction created by the author.

This is underscored by putting emphasis on the production process of the fictional reality TV show, which makes the audience aware of the same features being used in the movie at the time of watching.

Further examples of meta-reference in the movie include spotlights falling from the sky seemingly out of the blue, or a raincloud which is curiously only raining on Truman following him around on Seahaven Beach.