LLA class: Media Manipulaton

The main-stream media is not trustworthy. This statement seems rather harsh, but how much of the news on television do you trust? What was supposed to be a source of information has become a source to develop critical thinking. What I mean is, we as viewers or the receivers of the information must define for ourselves what is true and what should be questioned.

 
In my Media Studies class in High School, we watched a film called Wag the Dog, which is based on the novel American Hero by Larry Beinhart. The movie is about a spin doctor played by Robert DeNiro, who teams up with a Hollywood producer played by Dustin Hoffman, in order to create a fake war. The film starts two weeks or so before the election of the next president, and the current president, who is unnamed throughout the movie, has a scandal with a young girl. His opponent uses it to his advantage to get ahead in the polls. This is where the spin doctor comes in to work his magic. He draws focus away from the scandal by creating a fake war against Albania. He assumes that the American citizens probably know little of the country, and would believe the story with a few visual aids to support it. After filming a few scenes that would convince the Americans that there is a possibility of a war, he leaks the information to the main stream media. They were easily controlled, because the minute, the war story came out, the media dropped the scandal and focused on the fake war alone. The media, who are supposed to be the watch-dog of the government are easily manipulated. True, the movie may seem a little extreme, but no one can deny that there are issues the media have no control over. The receiving end, or in other words the public, must define for themselves what is true and what is not so as to stay truly informed.