Wilbur Schramm's Theory Of Communication In Wag The Dog

The next theory of communication seen in the film ‘Wag the Dog’ that we will be talking about is the Interactional Theory. Wilbur Schramm proposed a different model that showed communication as a two-way interaction. In Schramm’s model, he introduced the concept of field experience, which helps in concluding whether a message or the information would be received at its intended destination in the way intended by the source. In the film ‘Wag the Dog’ The President of the United States is caught in a sex scandal on an underage "Firefly Girl" less than two weeks before the Election. Conrad Brean whom is a spin doctor, is brought in to take the attention of the public away from the scandal, whilst using the Interactional Theory. By using the Interactional

Brean and his team make up a young man stuck behind enemy lines in Albania. The concept of feedback is seen here as the feedback they are receiving takes over the majority of papers and newspapers and they know what they are doing is very successful based on this feedback. The way they had communicated the information to the public about Schumann, whom was the man left behind enemy lines was actually more related to the concept of field experience as they had intended to communicate this man as a war hero, missing behind enemy lines and that he would be returning as a hero of his country and greatly succeeded in communicating their intended message to the public, when in fact he was a criminally insane Army prison convict. The two concepts of Schramms interaction communications discussed here made a massive impact on the tension in the movie as the field experience concept relieved the president of a lot of tension and also put tension on Albania and the feedback concept took massive amounts of tension off Brean and the team as they knew what they were doing was very successful in distracting the president even when the CIA tried to close the whole thing