Wag the Dog Movie Questions+

**questions assigned to answer after watching the movie Wag the Dog in class**

1. The key messages that the crisis counselor wants the public to know are that there is a suitcase bomb in Canada that Albanians are secretly trying to smuggle into the United States. The crisis counselor also wants the publics to see the staged footage from Albania.
2. The primary target audience is people voting for any party in the upcoming election. The secondary audience is all people living in the United States.
3. The motive behind this message is to take attention away from the sex scandal that the president is accused of being involved in.
4. The producer uses a newsbreak special report to show the fake recording of the Albanian girl. Another format is the song that Willie Nelson sings about American spirit. This is also shown on TV and uses a well-known icon to get attention.
5. The producer makes the message believable by embellishing the video. The use of a girl that viewers would pity, along with a kitten, a burning village and screaming sounds will generate attention. Another way they made it believable was by saying that the girl had family in Canada.
6. The president and other people representing his party benefit from the message.
7. Fact checking was a big missing part of the message. There are no nuclear devices in Albania and they are not in a time of war. The producers of the message also did not say where the footage came from.
8. No I do not agree with the message. It is untruthful and unethical.
9. This message can be verified as accurate by contacting Albania or fact checking. Finding the source of the video would also help verify it.
10. The PR technique deployed in the movie was unethical, they committed fraud and producing such a video could threaten the lives of Americans and even national security.