KONY 2012

[jasey]

Just a couple of minutes in, alarm bells should be ringing for us. Interesting stuff.

I totally agree. You post exactly what I am thinking.

[Nemo]

I've actually found this whole campaign really interesting, just by looking at the sheer power of the media and what effect a cleverly crafted video can have on people. It's amazing how easily people are led by a couple of celebrities and an attempted-emotional, thought-provoking video. Just a couple of minutes in, alarm bells should be ringing for us. There's powerful music, a strong sense of bohemian or even hippie culture and then a great spiel about this disasterous man in Africa. It's interesting to note that the chap presenting the video has used his son to help promote the cause. This is a clear case of appealing to our emotions and using emotional language in order to get us on side. We see a child talking about bad things so we sympathize with him and therefore agree with the cause - thousands of people are being manipulated by this video and most likely handing over their money to the company.

Whilst it's nice for the celebrities to offer their support on Twitter, any follower of Stephen Fry will know that his tweets largely consist of advertising or promotion these days. There was a time when we actually knew what he was doing, now it's more like following an advertising agency's feed. Of course it will raise awareness, but the celebrities simply won't carry out the background research and they will be unable to "support" it as we'd hope. I daresay if Rihanna was pressed, in an interview, for a reason why she supports Kony 2012, she wouldn't have the slightest clue what to say.

A study by the Frankfurt School looked at the effect of the media on a population - they said that it creates "false needs" in a society. This means that the media is responsible for everyone's shared love of the same music, the same fashion and the same interests. When something goes "viral", I can't help but think of this study and the similarities that are drawn between them. Everyone listens to the same "mainstream" music, everyone wears similar clothing and now: everyone is aware of Kony 2012 (if anyone has seen "We Will Rock You" on stage, this is their prediction for the future). This type is culture is extremely dangerous in a capitalist society, especially with the onset of propaganda and politics (which has obviously been abused, to an extent, in the past).

As I tend to say in most large charity threads - I just don't agree with them. We can see it day-in day-out with well-known charities such as Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation, and now even Kony 2012. Whilst it's excellent that they're trying to make a difference and make the world a better place, a significant portion of your money is being spent on posting free pens and flyers through your door, and now even buying media equipment to produce such robust videos. By all means give to a local hospice or local charity, but I can't help but think these larger charities get complacent with their amount of income and do indeed throw it left, right and centre.

With all this said, I'm still drawn to the wonder of something going "viral". It's fantastic how one person's voice can be heard all across the world in a matter of seconds. It's safe to say that the charity wanted to use this to their advantage, although I would warn that they might just have bitten off more than they can chew. Interesting stuff.

I have to agree with how interesting it was to see things go viral. I'm a huge reddit addict, and they're usually quick to find things, so when I initially saw the video posted I thought nothing of it. It was another video, inspiring, but not that big of a deal. I considered helping to spread the word, but I decided not to because parts of the video made me unsure about it. Mainly the whole "This video expires on Dec 31st 2012". Why? It seems strange they'd put a time limit on themselves when this is such a huge deal, and has taken many years already to get to. But anyway, that was that and I went to bed.

When i woke up however, my whole facebook had been talking about. People who don't know each other all sharing it. I think something like 30 people on my (admittedly small) friends list were sharing it. That's a lot of people being told about it, who will then share as well. Then I got invited to the event on April 20th. 200,000 people invited, and a confirmed 18,000 going, and that's just in London. I think that's pretty incredible for just a day of awareness. I dunno, i'm kind of rambling here, but I thought it was pretty awesome that a single video, distributed to a few people can have such an impact on such a huge audience.

But then it's kind of scary when you consider the fact that a very small number of these people did no fact checking. They're just giving away their money to something they've been told about, by someone they know nothing about.

Oh also the fact that people are trying to get a petition signed for the UK and the US to send forces there. Are people actually insane? Do they not look at the news or know nothing of history? Idiots.

[LoveToStack]

Woo, lets all hop on the bandwagon. It must be a good cause if other people are mindlessly copy and pasting the URL right? Rest in peace cynicism.

[tdi]

HOORAY, SPONTANEOUS ACTIVISM!

[GommeInc]

It seems like PETA activism but for children, nothing you should take too seriously without a bit of research. One would hope they don't actively assault children like PETA do with animals. The only interesting thing to come out of this was how quickly it spread over the internet.

[jasey]

I just rewatched the video with more attention and even if the orginization behind this effort is far from perfect the cause is definitely something that moves me. I am not ashamed to say I teared up when I took a few minutes and considered what was going on. Not just there in Uganda but all of the injustices across the world. We have to start somewhere, and Joseph Kony and his actions are certainly a thing that needs to be taken out. In any way, whether you support this form of activism and the originization or not, please help change the world for the better in any way you feel comfortable or capable of.

[nvrspk4]

Step 1: Bring a horrifying issue to light that violates the morals of nearly every single human being on the planet (universal belief).
Step 2: Create a good video documenting it, using both facts and emotional appeals
Step 3: Release it to the public, and give them a very easy, low-effort way to be involved (share the link)
Step 4: Becomes a phenomenon, and people are now more likely to participate because everyone seems amped. Those who are really into it start finding out that their less-gung-ho friends know about it and are against it, and drag them along.

Very effective campaign. Though there's clear stretching of the facts and some gaps they jump, at the end of the day I think it's universally agreed that Joseph Kony is a bad man and heightened awareness leads to less tolerance of his crimes. Simply starting this discussion was a success in my opinion, and now there's debate about what really should be done. Putting the issue in the public discourse is what needed to happen, and now there's some righting of the ship as the sensationalized campaign is being met with some different sets of facts, but the sensationalism was needed to get people talking. Now let's talk like rational individuals, continue to raise awareness, and see if something can't be done. When everyone agrees that a situation is screwed up (a la Gaddafi) things tend to happen. When there's disagreement, we have an Bashar al-Assad.

[GirlNextDoor15]

Don't we have World Court or something? There are possibly a million ways to stop him from doing it.. if he's real. However, I believe this campaign is quite good in educating the younger generations. Well, nobody forces you to donate as they are all so bloody expensive.. EUR or USD omg. But, I don't think raising awareness about this issue is harmful. I prefer it to be done for the purpose of education though.

[Jordy]

Don't we have World Court or something? There are possibly a million ways to stop him from doing it.. if he's real. However, I believe this campaign is quite good in educating the younger generations. Well, nobody forces you to donate as they are all so bloody expensive.. EUR or USD omg. But, I don't think raising awareness about this issue is harmful. I prefer it to be done for the purpose of education though.

Myself and the rest of the world would be very interested in hearing about your "millions of ways to stop him from doing it" as quite frankly no one else has come up with a feasible way of stopping him, that's why the issue here is so tricky.

I've watched the video after reading lots about it beforehand and was thoroughly disappointed. Most the video is irrelevant to the cause and purely playing on your emotions. Essentially there's a minute in the video where it explains he captures childrens, turns boys into soldiers and girls into sex slaves. That is the only bit of factual information in the video, it hardly even features on Kony, I learnt barely anything about him and his acts during the video. I challenge anyone who watched a 30-minute documentation to tell me anything about Kony other than he captures children. There was no footage or interviews really and nothing remotely graphic so I didn't find it moving at all. It's basically a 30 minute video which is a fantastic example of viral marketing and emotional blackmail. I still can't get over how little the video actually focuses on the issue at hand.

[Jazz]

Kony 2012 is actually starting to get on my nerves now. Every few minutes i've got people on msn, facebook, twitter, tumblr saying the same things over and over and over. It also seems that whenever I express my opinion on Kony 2012 I am labelled a nasty individual or something. People are also sticking up for this project like they own the bloody idea, which annoys me so much.

Example - I was approached by somebody and they were asking me to watch the video and share it etc, I said yes I've already done it but I shan't be donating because they are in fact only spending 32% of my money on these kids, so I will probably donate to Tri and this was the response I got back:
Contains Swearing

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I didn't think this was fair on me tbh, I fully support the pledge side of Kony 2012, and I think that its a fabulous idea. I just don't agree with the amount of money they are actually giving to these kids.