"WAG THE DOG."   Term Paper ID:30386 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines the plot of Barry Levinson's 1997 film.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines the plot of Barry Levinson's 1997 film. Blurring of the division between illusion and reality in the media. Real life conspiracy theories and sex scandal surrounding President Clinton disucssed in relation to film. Media manipulation. Electronic manipulation of events. Controversy created by the film. Political leaders use of media for their own purposes. Paper Introduction: The film Wag the Dog (Levinson, 1997) had a presidential sex scandal at its core, and it appeared in theaters just as a real presidential sex scandal was becoming major news. This gave the plot added appeal for the audience and made the plot of the film seem even more real, a plot which suggested a blurring of the division between illusion and reality in the media. On one level, the plot of the film would seem highly unlikely, requiring a massive conspiracy and the necessary secrecy to make it work. However, the audience was more willing to accept this scenario after several decades of conspiracy theories suggesting that just such a thing would be possible, with theories extending back at least to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The film itself became a touchstone for certain kinds of conspiracies after its release so that people would see Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Wag the Dog depends on this fact, that no longer know what is realand what is not just because it has been photographed, and that in fact weknow this yet are reluctant to give up our belief that the camera does notlie. The homeaudience in the movie accepts this footage as true, and we know we wouldprobably do the same. Clinton's attack on Serbiawas described by some as a "wag the dog" moment. Our imageof the world and our image of our own capabilities has altered, and we cancapture moments of our lives in photographs, on film, or on videotape andrelive them as if they exist in an eternal now. The dirty tricks in Wag the Dogare different in scale but not in kind to things that do go on all thetime. The plotworks well, but the producer has too much pride of authorship and wants toreveal what he has done. If the media did not find itout immediately, it would within a few months. We are about to lose this assurance asour electronic capabilities expand to the point where a photograph can nolonger be known to be true or even be proven to be true or false byexamination. The film works well as a dramatic presentation, but the possibilityof such a story actually taking place is more remote. In thedigital age, a computer can alter the image so no one can tell it has beenaltered at all. The image is no longer stored visually but is stored as aseries of numbers, meaningless until recreated by electronic means. Kennedy. The first isthe idea that the government may be able to keep secrets and fool thepeople with some conspiracy to mold public opinion. It waspredicted that our relationship to the world would change because of theadvent of photography, and we are in the process of another massive sea-change in how we relate to the world and images of the world because of thecomputer. The ability tomanufacture footage and get away with it is the most likely element in thefilm. The government eliminates him to protect thesecret. This gave the plot added appeal for theaudience and made the plot of the film seem even more real, a plot whichsuggested a blurring of the division between illusion and reality in themedia. We are all familiar with the ability of a technician tomanipulate an image, but we also know an expert can go back and look at theoriginal negative or original prints and see how a change was made. The film itself became a touchstone forcertain kinds of conspiracies after its release so that people would seeinstances where politicians facing scandal might create a distraction, evento the point where the U.S. In dramatic terms, we may be willing to accept that the conspiracy inWag the Dog would be possible, while in truth, we should see how impossibleit would be to carry off such a plot. Our attention span may beshort, but it is hardly that short. The government fakes a war with areal country, and it would be far too easy for the news media to go to thatcountry and find that there is no war at all. Removing the film producer would notprotect such a secret for any length of time, yet our readiness to believein conspiracies makes this seem plausible in the film. It appears more and more that if two people know a secret, everyonewill know it in time. participation in the UN action against SlobodanMilosevic was seen by some as an attempt by President Clinton to divertattention from the Monica Lewinsky scandal. We have all seen how believable films have become with the abilityto create footage by computer. The film has created some controversy since its release because it iscited as if it were a historic document by those who want to seeconspiracies in different governmental actions. In truth, we have a great deal ofevidence that this is not as likely as some might believe, for we have seenpeople again and again caught up in lies which are then exposed by themedia. There are two elements which are brought together in the film tocreate a suspension of disbelief on the part of the audience. The two togetherare precisely what happens in this film. When people want to castdoubt on some government action, they imply that political leaders aretaking such action only to divert attention from something else.Politicians do indeed take actions for such reasons on a small scale, aswith the "dirty tricks" of the Nixon campaign in 1972, or more recentefforts by one candidate to hurt another. The fact that the image has power drivesour civilization in a variety of ways--advertising, corporate image,political campaigns, images from the popular media, and so on. A widespread conspiracy should seem less and lesslikely, yet Americans show more and more willingness to believe that suchconspiracies do take place and that secrets are being kept from us on amassive scale. We may be set free from dependence on the image, but we do notknow how we will gauge reality when we cannot trust any image of thatreality and have to return to the thing itself for assurance. In order to divert attention froma presidential sex scandal that is about to break, one of the president'smedia handlers enlists the participation of a Hollywood producer tomanufacture a war and war footage for showing on television. We have also become accustomed to conspiracy theories, suggestingthat we are willing to believe that the news can be manipulated and thatpolitical leaders do this all the time. The second is thatfilm and television images can be manipulated today to create trulyrealistic images of events that never really occurred. For that matter, the film also depends on our inherent trust in thenews media, at least up to a point, and when we see war footage on thenews, we believe that it is real footage from a real war. In terms of the capturedimage, however, we have always retained the belief--sometimes an illusion,always only a partial truth--that the captured image shows us a moment ofreality and preserves that moment. On one level, the plot of the film would seem highly unlikely,requiring a massive conspiracy and the necessary secrecy to make it work.However, the audience was more willing to accept this scenario afterseveral decades of conspiracy theories suggesting that just such a thingwould be possible, with theories extending back at least to theassassination of John F. The film Wag the Dog (Levinson, 1997) had a presidential sex scandalat its core, and it appeared in theaters just as a real presidential sexscandal was becoming major news. 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