Digital Supplement
This thirty-minute video, which was directed by Jason Russell, tells people about the information found in their website in a visual media. Russell tells the story of the genesis of Invisible Children, Inc. and their objective to capture Joseph Kony. Russell's call to action was to share the video and to make Kony famous so he can become a household name. The video was a viral success, gaining 10 million views in a couple of days. However, this movement died out pretty quick.
Adam Taylor asks the question: Was #Kony 2012 a failure? Yes and no. The movement did have some momentum in the beginning. However, the movement did have critics. Critics of Invisible Children, Inc. noted that the organization oversimplify the issue of the LRA and they focused on too much film making instead of thinking of practical solutions to fix the problem in Uganda. However, they did amassed a huge following rather quickly and made this one of the most talked about moments of 2012. In that sense, they did succeed. They got their message out and got millions of people rallying behind. But in the long run, the movement just withered away.
Carol Jean Gallo, the author of the article, interviews a Ugandan human rights lawyer, Bwesigye bwa Mwesigire about the legacy of the Kony 2012 campaign. He does not seem to appreciate the movement as much as other people. His reasoning that he did not like the movement was because it made people of Uganda be victims. People around him decided to treat him differently, even though he was not affected by Kony's presence in anyway because he was from Southern Uganda, an area that Kony was not in. He mentions the death of nuance which is mentioned in the article above. People were oversimplifying the whole issue and people were not having real discussions anymore. People were just victimizing people from Uganda.
I mention this video in my body, but it is important to bring it up begin because this is something social movements could use to make their campaigns successful. As the video mentions, social movements that instill a strong emotional response die out quickly because emotions are only temporary. So as the video mentions, do not change the person, but change the context. In other words, make the movement convenient for them. Do not just rely on emotions to carry on a movement. It will wither and die, just like the Kony 2012 movement.
