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Week 5 team ethics paper 1

Week 5 team ethics paper 1

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Running head: ETHICS & THE MEDIA INDUSTRY

Ethics & the Media Industry

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August 13, 2019

Nicole Kragt

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ETHICS & THE MEDIA INDUSTRY

Ethics & the Media Industry

Nowadays, movies are first and foremost meant to entertain but sometimes a movie

comes along that challenges our concept of reality and comes dangerously close to mirroring

actual events that are well within the range of possibility. “Wag the Dog” is one such movie. The

overarching theme within the movie is the impact of propaganda and its effects on the public at

large. A detailed examination of this movie yields many parallels to today’s fraught political

scene, such as opposing views of censorship brought up by the characters, the use of hot-button

issues to further unions and divides, ethical dilemmas posed to the characters and their responses,

and the use of appropriate or inappropriate ethical theories to explain the decisions that were

made.

Movie Summary

“Wag the Dog” is a movie solely about the power of propaganda in an increasingly

technologically-driven world. The film opens with one of the main characters, a spin doctor

known as Conrad Bream, arriving at the White House and being told about the crisis, which is

the President of the United States having been accused of sexual misconduct with an underage

girl in the Oval Office, eleven days before his election day. Bream is hired to detract the public

away from this scandal long enough for the President to win reelection. Bream, with the help of

White House aide, Winifred Ames, goes on the offensive and immediately begins creating false

headlines about a crisis brewing overseas in Albania with just enough information to be seen as

real. He then hires a producer, Stanley Motss, to produce a nonexistent military conflict. Motss,

in turn, creates war footage and commissions an inspirational song by Johnny Dean (De Luca &

Levinson, 1997).

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Running head: ETHICS & THE MEDIA INDUSTRY Ethics & the Media Industry BSCOM/460 August 13, 2019 Nicole Kragt 1 ETHICS & THE MEDIA INDUSTRY 2 Ethics & the Media Industry Nowadays, movies are first and foremost meant to entertain but sometimes a movie comes along that challenges our concept of reality and comes dangerously close to mirroring actual events that are well within the range of possibility. “Wag the Dog” is one such movie. The overarching theme within the movie is the impact of propaganda and its effects on the public at large. A detailed examination of this movie yields many parallels to today’s fraught political scene, such as opposing views of censorship brought up by the characters, the use of hot-button issues to further unions and divides, ethical dilemmas posed to the characters and their responses, and the use of appropriate or inappropriate ethical theories to explain the decisions that were made. Movie Summary “Wag the Dog” is a movie solely about the power of propaganda in an increasingly technologically-driven world. The film opens with one of the main characters, a spin doctor known as Conrad Bream, arriving at the White House and being told about the crisis, which is the President of the United States having been accused of sexual misconduct with an underage girl in the Oval Office, eleven days before his election day. Bream is hired to detract the public away from this scandal long enough for the President to win reelection. Bream, with ...
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