...Additional Perspective Why does a dog wag its tail? Because a dog is smarter than its tail. If the tail were smarter, the tail would wag the dog. The opening credits have a various interpretation, according to Philip Coppens. Some suggest that the dog symbolizes public opinion and the tail represents the media. Other would say that, the tail symbolizes political campaigns and the dog is the media. But sometimes, the dog is the people and the tail is the government. So, Coppens stated that the phrase “tail wagging the dog” is the same as “any case where something of greater significance (such as war) is driven by something less (such as sex scandal)”. Moreover, it was believe that the moment before the start of the press conference in which Monica Lewinsky was about to give information of her presence in the Congress, White House announced the missile strikes against Sudan and Afghanistan. Critics argue that the operation was made to draw away the publics’ attention from the scandal of Clinton and Lewinsky. Barry Levinson’s film was a product of inspiration from the book of Larry Beinhart, American Hero. American Hero was about President George Herbert Walker Bush and Desert Storm, a fake war and the first war in Iraq. Bush planned the Persian Gulf to guarantee re – election in 1992, but he failed. Situational Analysis Parallelism Conclusion Personal Learning and Insights References Ebert, Roger. Wag the Dog. Feb. 24, 2009. http://rogerebert...
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...The story begins with presentation of the premise which is the president of the United States is accused of having sex with a teen aged girl who belongs to an organization similar to the girl scouts and the election is less than two weeks away. A brief encounter with a Firefly Girl becomes public knowledge, and now his 17% lead is about to go downhill. The president's opponents get wind of the story and use it to their advantage. Thus, this led the president's Public Relations team to take action regarding the crisis. Winifred Ames played by Anne Heche, one of the President's top aides, calls in spin doctor extraordinary, Conrad Bream (Robert De Niro). Conrad goes to work immediately, thinking of the best way how to turn away the public's attention from the Firefly Girl issue. He came out with the idea to create another bigger issue for the public to think about and over power the bad publicity caused by the sex scandal. "Change the story, change the lead" is his motto, so he decides to manufacture a small, cost-effective war against Albania, which he euphemistically refers to as a pageant. Why he choose Albania of all the countries in the world because the name sounds sinister and no one in the United States knows anything about the country. Hence it will be easier for them to formulate a story about it that people will surely believe eventually. For the plan to manifest, Winifred Ames and Conrad Bream flew to Los Angeles to seek the help of a top Hollywood producer Stanley...
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...will have a better understanding of ‘Whose Reality?’ and the context, ‘Wag the Dog’ (a 1997 film directed by Barry Levinson). I aim to get my readers to recognise the large role that media play in influencing our realities along with how dangerous the collaboration of the media and the government truly is. In order to put forth my opinion I’ll write in a cynical tone to portray that the motives of particular people are bad, I’ll use factual (gun crimes in the US) and fictional (‘Wag the Dog’ and ‘Leaky Boat’) evidence and I’ll use proper terminology to add sophistication and credit to my piece. In this piece, I draw on examples from ‘Wag the Dog’ (1997 film directed by Barry Levinson), ‘Leaky Boat’ (2011 ABC documentary) and gun crimes in the US in order to illustrate the idea that people are easily influenced by external sources, especially when they have authority. ESSAY: Stephan Lewandowsky’s study shows that “weighing the plausibility of a message is cognitively more difficult than simply accepting that the message is true – it requires additional motivational and cognitive resources.” This shows why peoples realities are heavily influenced by others, this is due to the difficulty of weighing the plausibility and the foundation of the reported truth or version of reality. People’s reality can be influenced by the media, government, values, beliefs and perceptions. This is apparent in ‘Wag the Dog’ (1997 film directed by Barry Levinson), ‘Leaky Boat’ (2011 ABC documentary)...
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...Als dem US-amerikanischen Präsidenten zwei Wochen vor der Wahl vorgeworfen wird, eine minderjährige Schülerin sexuell belästigt zu haben, engagiert sein Wahlkampfteam Conrad „Mr. Fix-It“ Brean, um die Wiederwahl zu retten. Brean sieht die einzige Möglichkeit darin, die Aufmerksamkeit der Medien auf einen (fiktiven) Krieg zu lenken, den er mit Hilfe des Filmproduzenten Motss in Szene setzt. Die Wahl des Gegners fällt auf Albanien, weil die Öffentlichkeit über dieses Land nichts weiß. Im Studio werden angebliche Augenzeugenberichte produziert, worauf die Nachrichten die Meldung verbreiten, die USA zögen gegen Albanien in den Krieg, nachdem albanische Terroristen eine Atombombe in einem Koffer versteckt in die USA schmuggeln wollten. Die CIA weiß, dass die Geschichte erlogen ist, und nimmt die Verantwortlichen fest, um diplomatische Konflikte zu vermeiden. Jedoch gelingt es Brean, seinen Kopf aus der Schlinge zu reden. Allerdings heißt es kurz darauf, der Albanien-Krieg sei beendet. Motss, der sich nicht den Wind aus den Segeln nehmen lassen will, kommt auf die Idee, als medialen Gegenschlag einen verschollenen Helden namens William Schumann „Old Shoe“ zu erfinden, der hinter den feindlichen Linien zurückgeblieben ist. Eine Sympathiewelle mit „Shoe“ wird entfacht und gipfelt in der angeblichen Befreiung Schumanns kurz vor dem Wahltag. Allerdings handelt es sich bei dem ausgesuchten Darsteller Schumanns um einen Sträfling, der eine Nonne vergewaltigt hat und nur mit starken Neuroleptika...
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...I. Background Information Wag the Dog is a hilarious new satire movie directed by Barry Levinson. Ironic with the genre of the film as a comedy, it carries a serious and an eye-opening message about the relationship between politics and mass-market entertainment. This is one of Levinson's best films, and the screenplay, co-penned by noted writer David Mamet along with Hilary Henkin, is brilliantly on-target. The story begins with presentation of the premise which is the president of the United States is accused of having sex with a teen aged girl who belongs to an organization similar to the girl scouts and the election is less than two weeks away. A brief encounter with a Firefly Girl becomes public knowledge, and now his 17% lead is about to go downhill. The president's opponents get wind of the story and use it to their advantage. Thus, this led the president's Public Relations team to take action regarding the crisis. Winifred Ames played by Anne Heche, one of the President's top aides, calls in spin doctor extraordinary, Conrad Bream (Robert De Niro). Conrad goes to work immediately, thinking of the best way how to turn away the public's attention from the Firefly Girl issue. He came out with the idea to create another bigger issue for the public to think about and over power the bad publicity caused by the sex scandal. "Change the story, change the lead" is his motto, so he decides to manufacture a small, cost-effective war against Albania, which he euphemistically refers...
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...I decided to go with involves a dog service but is a new service offered from the company Wag! The company is a dog walking service that allows the user to request a person to walk their dog on demand. With the user picking the time of day and the length of walk for their dog it allows the user to get their furry friends out of the house while they might be at work or away all day. It was founded on that purpose alone; founder Joshua Viner wanted to get a dog but knew the burden it takes when one is working full time (Wag!.com). Right now they only offer dog walking, so the new service I want to roll out is where you can have your dog taken...
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...[pic] De La Salle University – Dasmariňas Communication Arts Department MOVIE REVIEW: WAG THE DOG Submitted by: CARLYN GAE ESTANISLAO COM32 Submitted to: Prof. ROEL S. RAMIREZ, APR mARCH 2011 1/11 I. Background Information / Additional Perspective "Why does a dog wag its tail? Because the dog is smarter than the tail. If the tail was smarter, it would wag the dog." This film is an incredibly witty movie, with a rare blend of cynicism, humor, and intelligence by Barry Levinson, Wag the Dog thus begins with these opening credits, an early indication of a dark socio-political satire that would unfold to criticize mass media and indecisive public opinion, but most importantly, the abuse of power by political leaders. Wag the Dog also satirizes the immaturity of the society and how people's unquestioning absorption of propaganda only encourages the media to exploit them on a higher level. Conrad Brean (Robert De Niro) is a retired political consultant, a spin doctor who resurrects the support for the US President's after his disastrous scandal with a teenage girl just eleven days before the election. In order to smother the sparks of rumor ignited by the media, Brean invents an international crisis to sway the people's vote he fakes a war on Albania. The president heroically ends the war and his compassion and exceptional 2/11 leadership qualities are presented through the mass media to the people, winning back their faith. (Lu...
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...Critical Thinking as We See it In her 1999 work, Concepts and Tools in Critical Thinking, Linda Elder offers the following definition of critical thinking: “Critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way. People who think critically consistently attempt to live rationally, reasonably, and empathically. They are keenly aware of inherently flawed nature of human thinking when left unchecked. They strive to diminish the power of their egocentric and socio- centric tendencies. They use the intellectual tools that critical thinking offers- concepts and principles that enable them to analyze, access, and improve thinking. They work diligently to develop the intellectual virtues of intellectual integrity, intellectual civility, intellectual empathy, intellectual sense of justice and confidence in reason.” Critical thinking is taking a thought thinking about it, analyzing it, and then elaborating on it with facts and evidence. Based on Linda Elder’s argument critical thinkers use intellectual tools to improve their thinking through numerous skills. The numerous skills used such as intellectual empathy and rationale allow for critical thinkers to reason at a high level of quality. With Linda Elder’s definition in mind the following texts offer evidence to support her definition. In John Berger’s Ways of Seeing he offers the problem of people being subjective. In...
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...Dog Eat Dog? Dog fighting has been around for hundreds of years and can be traced back to Europe. The sport of dog fighting is progressively getting more and more popular. It is illegal and considered a felony under federal laws in all fifty states in the United States of America (Dogfighting Fact Sheet 1). Besides the act of dog fighting itself being illegal, there are usually always other criminal activities involved such as: drug paraphernalia, illegal weapons, illegal gambling, and gang activities. Therefore, this so-called sport of dog fighting should continuously stay prohibited, and be more harshly punished by stricter laws. This brutal and bloody entertainment sport, where dogs fight to the death, is an inexcusable example of animal cruelty. Dog fighting is believed to have started in England after bull-baiting was outlawed. Bull-baiting was a spectator sport where a bull had a rope tied around its neck and then tied to a stake in the ground. Bulldogs were then sent to attack or “pin down” the bull by grasping the bull by its nose. Many dogs would receive life threatening wounds or would be killed by the bull trying to escape the torture of numerous dogs attacking him (Luca 1). After this very popular sport was banned people who owned these bull-baiting dogs, also known as bulldogs today, began pitting these dogs against each other. After people began participating in the sport of dog fighting, people began breeding bulldogs with terriers (Background on Dog Fighting...
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...Politics is a broad, complicated subject. It involves issues like diplomacy, war, government finance, and such; it is also a significant part of your life every day. The movie “Wag the Dog” is a funny and pointed film about American political life and how politic influences the media and people, with remarkable relevance to contemporary events. In the movie a Hollywood film producer is hired to build up a fake war in Albania to distract from a sex scandal of the recent president, who once again plans to candidate, in elections time. The idea behind is to tell that some Albanian terrorists tried to smuggle an atomic bomb into the United States, through the Canadian border and as nobody really knows what is going on in a small country somewhere in-between Europe and Asia, which such a rich war history, people start to believe what they see. However, it is a fake war will influence all around the world, they all the people to believe it is a real war. At this point, I believe it is political power is a rights and power by government officers make a change as the way they want. Even thought this movie wasn't based on a true story, it addresses a lot of issues that often arises in politics as well as society as a whole. This movie reflects how America has been susceptible to the mirage that leaders can hide themselves behind. This is what the leaders’ power has in the society. The movie addresses numerous issues that exist in American society. It addresses the mass amounts of dishonesty...
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...Most people said that dogs are man's best friend and a great companion. They had been domesticated ever since the beginning of time. They are different breeds of dogs throughout the whole world and in this essay that I'm writing about, I'm going to compare and contrast three unique and one of some kind types of dogs that I chose to write about. They are the Basset Hound, the Chihuahua, and last but not least the Pit Bull. What makes these dogs so similar is that they are the most popular pets in the world. They ordinarily remain loyal to considerate masters, and because of this they have been called man's best friend. A dog fits easily into family life. When a master tells a dog that it is good, the animal happily wags its tail. But when a master scolds a dog, it skulks away with a sheepish look and with its tail tucked between its legs. Some dogs can herd animals in a farm, and some of them can also serve as watch dogs, or even as playful family pets. Dogs are even trained as guard dogs in peacetime by the U.S. Army and other military services. Because of their keen sense of smell, the police at times to track down escaped prisoners use dogs. Law enforcement agencies also rely on the dog's acute sense of smell to uncover illegal drugs. And specially trained dogs serve as the "eye of the blind, guiding steps of their sightless masters around obstacles and hazards. However there are some characteristics that make the Basset Hound, Chihuahua, and the Pit Bull different from...
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...Most people said that dogs are man’s best friend and a great companion. They had been domesticated ever since the beginning of time. They are different breeds of dogs throughout the whole world and in this essay that I’m writing about, I’m going to compare and contrast three unique and one of some kind types of dogs that I chose to write about. They are the Basset Hound, the Chihuahua, and last but not least the Pit Bull. What makes these dogs so similar is that they are the most popular pets in the world. They ordinarily remain loyal to considerate masters, and because of this they have been called man’s best friend. A dog fits easily into family life. When a master tells a dog that it is good, the animal happily wags its tail. But when a master scolds a dog, it skulks away with a sheepish look and with its tail tucked between its legs. Some dogs can herd animals in a farm, and some of them can also serve as watch dogs, or even as playful family pets. Dogs are even trained as guard dogs in peacetime by the U.S. Army and other military services. Because of their keen sense of smell, the police at times to track down escaped prisoners use dogs. Law enforcement agencies also rely on the dog’s acute sense of smell to uncover illegal drugs. And specially trained dogs serve as the “eye†of the blind, guiding steps of their sightless masters around obstacles and hazards. However there are some characteristics that make the Basset Hound, Chihuahua, and the Pit Bull different...
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...Jean Piaget was a Swiss genetic epistemology psychologist who focused on the cognitive development of children. He became intrigued with the child cognitive development when he was employed by the Binet Institute to make I.Q. questions in French. He wanted to figure out the reason why children gave the wrong answers for questions that required logical thinking during these tests. He did not want to focus on the learning process of a child, but on the development of concepts/morals in a child. Thus he made detailed observational studies of cognition in children. Before Piaget, psychology just assumed children were not competent thinkers, but his observations and cognitive theory shows differently. His theory from a series of tests, shows...
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...Carlson Gerelus Professor Patel In to Sociology Film Analysis Media Influence We’ve likely to grown up thinking that the main stream media was our friend, the middle man that is always there when we need it. Faithfully provides us with information that is of common sense and natural judge for everything that matters. They’ve told what to eat, what to drink, how to eat, how to drink, what wear to, and what the standards of beauty should be and look like. The content that’s important, and a reliable guide to existence. As we’ve gotten older we have come to realize that this isn’t quite true as we would want it to be. For that we have to go in depth with what is wrong with the main stream media. From time to time, the greatest messages have been propagandized through the usage of movies and drama over the asphyxiation of motive and emotional sequences, disregarding any logical or factual sequences, thus having media outlets pushing emotional content to its viewers, distorting fantasy from reality. This content is necessary in the eyes of the distributor that is trying to get its consumers to do something or believe in the same ideology as the distributor would want them to believe in. Rather than go through a discussion or debate using logic and facts. Let’s take Fox News for example, a right wing news outlet that specializes in taking tender topics to the extremes to get its viewers hooked on its coverage for consumption, allowing one side of an argument to be seen but...
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...my cats Long time ago, a people raised a cat and a dog as his pet. And the cat and the dog were very good friends. They ate together, lived together, and play together. They almost stayed together all of the day. One day, the master lost his ancestral gem and he was very sad. Then the cat and the dog decided to find the gem. On the road, they met a mountain, the dog said” Cat brother, climb on my back!” Then they met a river. The cat couldn’t swim. The dog said” Don’t worry. I can help you. Climb on my back.” Finally, they found the gem. But when they returned to home, the cat told their master” it’s me who find the gem, and the dog did nothing.” When the dog wanted to explain it, the master didn’t give dog a chance. He gave the cat a delicious fish, and kicked the dog out of the door. The dog and the cat weren’t friend since then. That’s why dogs bite cats as soon as they meet, and dogs always pursue while cats always escape. And another reason is that dogs and cats have very different language. When the dog meets the cat, the dog always wags tail, because they think it is a friendly way. But cats often think it is provocation. But nowadays dogs and cats aren’t always enemy any more. Sometimes, they can stay together peacefully. Maybe you could say the dog is a better pet. But I don’t know why, I just like cats very much. I always become crazy when I meet a cat. They are really cute. When they want something, they fawn on you and follow you all around. And cats can be very...
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