On ‘Wag the Dog’

The movie ‘Wag the Dog’ shows that the media is a system through which we experience the world. In the cover-up of what follows the sex scandal of the President, spin-doctor Conrad (Robert De Niro) and Hollywood producer Motss (Dustin Hoffman) is seen operating between us and the real world. What can we understand from this movie as it put forwards some serious inquiry into the administration of democracy, the Fourth Estate and people behind the scene?

Below I present my analysis:

Information (reality) is always constructed by the storyteller and is merely one’s point of view. Mediating this information for us is media that tells us what they want to tell and which eventually shape up our reality. Now, this reality like the storyteller’s point of view is just a version. Thus, we can see that there are realities and representations vary accordingly. In the movie, the war with Albania is a constructed one and the media is fed with images which (claim to) represent reality. The result – the public takes the war on Albania for real while all the while it has been Conrad and Motss simply producing it.

Thus, the movie questions the mediated reality and the corporate culture of breeding opinion by expressing certain beliefs and ideologies. It shows how reality is just a product which can be bended (branded) when needed and leaves us audience as mere consumers and maybe the dog as well (literally).

Wagged!

~ by deadkid on June 16, 2008.