The Interactional Model In The Film Wag The Dog

The interactional model is the most useful for explaining what happens when the message is seen to be problematic, in the film ‘Wag the Dog’. In the film ‘Wag the Dog’, the president of the United States of America is accused of sexual misconduct against a girl who was visiting the white house. A mysterious adviser, Conrad Brean played by Robert De Niro is brought in. He decides to manufacture a false war with Albania to distract the public’s attention and to encourage sympathy for the country, thus increasing the President’s chances of re-election. However, it is evident that the interactional model becomes problematic when agents of the CIA apprehend Conrad Brean and member of the White House Winifred Ames, informing the two that they know there is no war.

In 1954, William Schramm came up with the theory that communication is a two way process, this is, the sender passes on a message to the receiver. The receiver then breaks down the message and responds, giving feedback. Schramm states that the feedback can either be verbal, non-verbal or both. The only two parties involved in this way of communicating are the sender and receiver. In this case, the sender is the white house, the massage is that the United States of America have gone to war with Albania, and the receiver is the American citizens. However, this is where we learn the interactional model becomes problematic as the CIA interfere with the communication by informing Brean and Ames there is no war. Where there is meant to be strictly only a sender and a receiver, the CIA are now the noise in the

The CIA interfered with the communication between the white house and the public, which proved to be the problem. It is evident that Schramms’ interactive model has many strengths, however we can also see a lot of weaknesses and limitations in