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Anna Zawilska

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What can we learn about social media and society in general from the hype generated by Kony 2012?

Although I have known about Invisible Children for quite some time, I was surprised to see the sudden boom in attention pointed towards the group due to Kony 2012. I want to explore - what causes a social media boom like this? What is it about the movement that makes people react so emotionally (in both positive and negative ways)? How can we use this time of energy in constructive ways in the future?

Topics: Invisible Children Kony 2012 collaborative thought social media society
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    Josh Lee

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    Mar 12 2012: I believe its very technical in the way of playing with the audience's emotions, which, good film makers are masters of.
    For instance, the whole character "Jacob" that they introduce is a very likeable victim who is shown to be very sensitive, conveys emotions and is able to speak English. Jacob gives the viewers a much more personal figure to relate to. Combined with shocking imagery of the brutally maimed victims, it gives the video somewhat of an "edge" I guess...

    I think people really have to take the important lesson here, it's not about Kony, he's long been a fugitive on the run for some time, but about the effectiveness of media to make people aware of issues that are happening globally. There is no reason now that there is Internet, we shouldn't be aware of global issues.

    • Adrien Mveng

      • 0
      Mar 20 2012: Yeah i don't deny the movie was excellent. But I'm pretty sure that on Youtube there are a lotta moving videos maybe not as moving as Kony 2012, but still. I think for example about the "Love Language" made by the jubilee project. That video is moving, but it never reached 2 million views. Plus the same Kony 2012 video was uploaded on Vimeo and didn't spread as widely as on Youtube (right now the vid has only 17.4 million views).

      I think the question that should be raised is how can we have a video seen by over 50 million people in 4 days? How can a topic be spread world wide with as much effectiveness than the Stop Kony Show? There are over 850 millons people on Facebook & over 225 millons people on Twitter. How can one convey something that would reach all of the Web 2.0 network, like the Invisible Children did

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