My first thought as i read your article was: how could something like that happen? I mean Google is very huge  and i thought that they have a good safety system which does not even allow hackers to find a gap in the system. Somehow it is frightening. Could today anybody even use the internet safe? And what did the hackers want? Probably power..or maybe something completely different. Google seems to be not so fanciet in China because of the restriction of freedom of opinion on behalf of China. They do not show everything from Google in China. Many things are censored. The chinese search engine is adapted to the chinese system of justice. But Google wants that the search results appear unfiltered and i have heard of  threats on the part of Google  with the retreat from China . I think Google is very angry about the attack. So it could be that the attack has something to do with the human right- and freedom of opinion-thing, could´nt it?!

sincerely yours, Lisa Stöhr

I think with your text „the internet is destroying the world as we know it“ you are right in many points. Nowadays one should be very careful with using the internet and disclosing personal data. It is scary that many information about oneself are in curculation over the internet. Especially your children should know that they should not give all information about themselfs  careless away. But i think internet has it good sites,too. I knew the thing with the „wikipedia-amateurs“ already and so I´m careful and ckeck the information i searched for on other sites,too but for a quick overview it is very helpful. Just never believe everything at once.

Your sincerely, Lisa Stöhr

The Satire  „Wag the Dog“ published in 1997,  based on the novel „American hero“ by Larry Beinharrt is a film with a top-class cast: the protagonist is played by Robert de Niro and the determined producer Stanley Motss is played by the Oscar-nominated actor Dustin Hoffman. Both ,movie and actors, were nominated for several awards (among other things the Oscar (1998) and the Golden Globe Award (1998) ).

The movie tells from a team of spindoctors around the incumbent president. They have the difficult job  to „rescue“ the president from a scandal so that he  wins the elction against his rival Senator Neal. But to camouflage the incident with the girl the team has to invent a new story they can sell to the public. With a decent portion of humor the film shows how easy the media can manipulate the people and which enormous scales it can take on. The hole movie creates a certain tension because they have not much time till the election and not everything works like they wanted it to work. But that again makes the film funny, too. Ames, Brean and Motss are the protagonists and I think they act their part really good. Brean and Ames are the right hand of the president and they have to save his image . They are working hand in hand  and really exactly, everything is planned. Motss is engaged to make the thing perfect and to make it seem real. He has many good ideas. „This is nothing“ is something like his motto and his favourite saying. No matter how difficult and desperate the situation is Motts has ever a new idea. Chargeable to Ames nerves. She is always sceptical about his thoughts. In contrast to her Brean is very relaxed. All in all I think Motts is the most likeable person; he is so bubbly and a bit crazy and that makes the hole thing seem not so perfect.

Lastly I want to recommend the film to you.The background or the hole film encourges to think and to discuss. It is scary how their methods to manipualte the people  function. And some unplanned things make it really entertaining.  When you like movies with a bit action, tension and a big secret in the center which is not allowed to be brought to light – you should see this movie. Enjoy it and be surprised about the end!

In the movie “ Wag the dog“ published in 1997 and produced by Barry Levinson, Robert de Niro and Jane Rosenthal,  Dustin Hoffman plays the creative and successorientated producer Stanley Motss. The film is about a team of the president which tries to help the incumbent president to win the election again. But that is not that easy because there is a rumour going around that the president behaved „improper“ towards a girl. Now his team has to perform miracles to camouflage this scandal. Stanley Motss has the  important assignment to stage-manage another story which distracts the people from the real facts.

He appears self confident and sometimes a bit arrogant. He is male, up to 60 years old and a little crazy. But maybe it takes to be a bit crazy to do his job. He is a very good producer. So he takes care about his look; he has a slender figure, always styled hair,wears glasses and uses the tanning bed. His big optimism let him never give up and he has a solution for every problem. With his ambitious manner he motivates the others, too. Motss lives for his job and pursues recognition. But sometimes he is a bit frustrated because in the movie he is not allowed to say anything about the „project“ and so nobody knows about his brilliant work. Because of his desire for success he is a very determined person. In Breans eyes (he leads the project to help the president) Motss does a very good job and he is satisfied with his ambition. Stanley Motss is important for the whole team. Ames (Brean´s assistent) is sometimes stressed about Motss.  She thinks he is too risky and has her doubts about his plans.

At least the project operates for the benefit of the president. Everybody is satisfied except Motss. He wants to become famous. But in the end that wish kills him. Altogether he is a really good producer and indispensable for Brean´s and Ames´ work and he makes the movie funny with his honest and un-reserved utterances.

- male – 30-40 years old – good producer – dark hair – wears glasses

feelings/ attitudes:

- optimistic – determined – likes challenges – relaxed in every situation (unless it is about his profession)

words and thoughts:

- sometimes funny – good ideas – has a solution for every problem

behavior towards others:

- is very optimistic – he really believes he can handle everything – motivates the others – sometimes joking – has a clear idea of what he wants and how he gets it

other´s reactions to character:

- Ames is stressed and has her doubts about his plans, he is too risky for her – Brean likes his attitude and his ideas, it is what he wants – they can work together

It is conspicuous that no one of the three people he is talking with is thinking about a diplomatic solution for this. No one thinks about a possible „friendship“ or „cooperation“  with aliens. The Senior Undersecretary of  State guesses that it could be really difficult to take action against the aliens if they could read humans minds. The White House staffer is optimistic that the president would speak to the aliens in a peaceful way and find a solution. The Pentagon liaison who is a Major-General thinks about the weapons of the aliens and how we could work against them. He is convinced that we could vaprize them with nuclear weapons and he is of the opinion that people should know about possible combat-methods to calm them. So they all think very bad about aliens and see them as a danger.

3. a) The media would play a very big role in the event of alien contact because it spreads the news very fast around the whole world and within a few minutes everybody would know about the aliens and that could cause a huge panic. But you could use the media also to calm the people down and tell them what is the best thing to do in such a situation. Aliens are so unbelievable and it would interest many people if they landed  somewhere so it really might be a big event if e.g. the president would talk to them personally and many people would pursue it on TV , radio or internet (or some other media).

b) Such big „media moments“ are very important for politicians in democratic countries because it shows the people that they are reacting and that the poeple can trust for exapmle their president. So either they are satisfied and elect this politician again or they are dissatisfied and pick another politician at the next election. It could also come to protests or something like that if the people think that the politicians act wrong. The media moments influence the people.

2. The title is almost the same as the one from Orson Welles hoax. In the one from O.W. it has to do with martians who landed on earth and they started in some way a war against the humans and in the czech version of this there is a nuclear blast – so it could be a „real“ war with „real“ people. For this hoax they used footage and that makes it very believable because people believe things earlier when they see it with their own eyes and it was published  in a wheatercam broadcast. O.W.´s hoax was only presented on radio but at that time there was no TV so it was realistic for the people,too, because of the sound effects and it was also published as a radio news report. But i think that O.W´s hoax caused more fear and panic. And one more difference is that O.W. did not had to go in prison for that.

3. Maybe there are differences between this hoax and the one from Orson Welles because  the czech artists group hacked their hoax illegal in the live wheathercam broadcast and they only had the opportunity to show a short image. Orson Welles hoax was his own radio show and they announced it and its duration was much longer so that the chance that more people hear it is bigger when they switch in to different times. I think that a lot less people saw the hoax from the czech war of worlds and because of that its effect was not so big as from Orson Welles.

Was it meant to be funny? I can tell you it wasn´t! My family and I were hearing this broadcast and first we couldn´t believe the news about the gas explosions on mars. But at that time we didn´t care so much because mars is far away and on earth is everything okay. Then came the thing whith the meteorite which landed on the farm. My mother (an older woman) was so shocked that we had to calm her because she was going to hyperventilate. I have to admit that i was shocked,too. We all were sitting tense besides the radio. When the martian-noises were comming out the meteorite I send my children into bed because they were nearly crying and i could understand that only too well. After that my mother fainted. We all paniced because it sounded so real and there was music playing sometimes like in a normal radio broadcast. So there were no signs for this to be not real. And that makes me angry! Just in the end we checked slowly that it was a fake and at that time my pulse was nearly 180. And we were not the onlyone who reacted like this!

sincerely, Lisa S.

- it´s easy and uncomplicated; you don´t have to go somewhere you just have to switch your pc on and then you can be in contact with people from everywhere

- you come to know new people

- you can be in contact with all your friends at once and you are informed about new events etc.

negative:

- everyone can find information about you and it can cause you difficulties when you have some party-pictures online and you look for a job

- behind every person you don´t know can be a man or woman with bad intentions  (like people who want to rape you or something like that…)

- you can fall victim to cyber-mobbing