Wag The Dog Analysis

Potapova Daria A42.1
Essay
The film “Wag the Dog” is about the relationship between the president, the media and the public in the country. It focuses on the media as a strong power which can manipulate people’s minds.
Speaking about the title, I think that “dog” here is a public opinion and tail represents the media. So the phrase "the tail wagging the dog" means that media can easily influence the public opinion. The description of the title set the satirical tone of the movie which is a comedy about how public opinion was manipulated through the means of media.
At the beginning of the film a president is officially accused of having a sexual relationship with a girl scout in the white house two weeks before the presidential election. Robert
de Niro as Conrad Brean, “Mr. Fix It,” the media manipulator is hired to create a big distraction that ends up being a fake war with Albanian terrorists to draw the public attention away from what has happen. The media specialists were able to divert the whole sex scandal situation thanks to the Hollywood producer named Stanley Motss (played by Dustin Hoffman). We can see that through this movie, media uses images, symbols and signs in order to divert the public's attention on problems that may not be relevant to them but what they may need to 'complete' their lives. This method was derived from the concept of the period called the 'postmodern' where people brains were soaked in such signs, symbols and images. This has also made the public to think that it is reality, mean while it is not but the media's version of 'reality'. It is quite an understanding that Motss uses this style to derive the public attention away from the president's sexual scandal in the movie.
The media specialists and the producer with his group use lots of methods to manipulate the public’s feelings and opinion.
To begin with, a manufactured problem here is a fake war with Albanian terrorists, which is manufactured to draw the public attention away from the sexual conflict, and which the president tries to solve doing his best.
Besides, name calling is used when the producer creates a story about the soldier Schumann who is held by the Albanian terrorists. Motss cooks up "good old Shoe," William Schumann (Woody Harrelson), who is allegedly rescued from the hands of the Albanians to be flown back for a hero's welcome. Shoe inspires a shtick, too: Kids start lobbing their old gym shoes over power lines, and throwing them onto the court during basketball games, as a spontaneous display of patriotism. The producer creates not only a fake name and surname, but also shows a photo. Here also symbols are used. The fake soldier is wearing a sweater with holes which are like symbols of Morse Code which mean “Courage mom”. Earnestness and sincerity take place when the president speaks to the “small Albanian girl” and offers his coat to the “Albanian woman”. Moreover here the media specialist choose the particular place of the president’s plane landing, because they need rain on order to make the meeting more lyric and the president more sympathetic and sincere. Also Motss supervises the design of a logo for use on the news channels and hires Willie Nelson to write the song that will become the conflict's "spontaneous" anthem. Testimonial takes place in the president’s speech about the
Albanian war is used to make people believe in him: “Everyone must thank that Supreme Power”, “I want to express my support to the parents of the missing soldier”, “I want to assure you that we will spare no effort to bring back home a hero”.
Finally, manipulators use lots of computer technology. During the media scene of building the war, a young teenager girl is used, to act as an Albanian girl, in fact she is an actress being given a role to run through an empty studio. The young girl is holding a white kitten, which is edited by the use of technology. This is used to show how media can easily be used to play around with images. Moreover the media makes us to understand that it is not everything that we see or hear is truth. The white kitten signifies purity, peace and clarity onto the public and makes them more interested in the lost girl at war and not the president's sex scandal. Latter on the village, sirens and sound effects of somebody screaming are added. This information is played on the evening news and it touches so many hearts of the American people. They unknowingly trust what they are seeing because it is on the news. At this point we can see how the media is used to quickly change people's minds into another dramatic concern.
In conclusion, I think that this film shows us how media can “wag” our mind and that not everything what we see or hear is true.