- The metaphor of “wag the dog” implies that the role of power in this movie is not what you would originally think it would be. Dogs have the power to control the wagging of their tails so the name implies that things in this movie would be backwards, which is true at the end of the movie because what the public believes is not the entire truth.
- Mr. Fix-it’s real name is Conrad Breen, he is a main character in this movie who is in charge of manipulating the media to cover up political scandals.
- The significance of the producers house being larger than the white house portrays the initial role of the power in the film. Throughout the movie he has more power than the president and his house being larger portrays the message early on that he is more powerful than the president.
- “We remember the slogans, but we don’t remember the war” is a significant quote from the movie because it shows the medias effect on people. The determines your memory of certain events through how they portray it so its easier to remember a slogan or piece of propaganda from a war over remembering specific details from it.
- The quote “of course there’s a war; I’m seeing it on TV” is very significant to the movie because it shows how effective the media is. It shows that people will believe anything that the media is telling them. Most of the knowledge from the general public comes from the media and people trust it so if the TV says that there’s a war, people will believe there is one.
- In this movie, the producer seems to have more power than the president does. He controls what is being put in the media and made up an entire war that everyone believes just because he put it on TV. He made up commercials and fake advertisements to convince the population there was a war when in reality there wasn’t.
- Many movies use merchandising throughout the films to advertise products. In this movie Shuman ate 303 burgers behind enemy lines. Other examples of this type of merchandising are in The movie Transformers when a TV commercial is on during the movie that was advertising the GM car company. Also in the movie Cast Away when Tom Hanks was ordering coffee at Starbucks, and in the original Great Gatsby movie when girls are walking around a party with Moet Chandon products.
- The public in the movie followed the “shoe trend” because it was popular. People are always influenced by what other people are doing so the trend caught on.
- Wag The Dog demonstrates many principles in media. It uses Media Constructs reality through the producers death at the end and the cover up war in Albania. Media present ideology & value messages through the lies of the media and how the public should not trust it 100% of the time. Commercial interest through the 303 burger eating. and Codes and conventions through the music and war commercial they made. .
- In this movie the news media was portrayed negatively. The news that the public was learning was not true and it made the credibility of their newscasts very poor. This als can be true with our current news stations. Many have different opinions on their stories and present them differently.
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