As
a uni student amidst copious social activist groups on campus, campaigns for
various student causes and the constant lurking socialist or marxist group that
you once joined just so they would point you in the direction of your
lecture...I was very intrigued to see the reaction that the prevalent
"Kony 2012 - Invisible Children" video would receive amongst my
fellow college and university students. I am sure that like me, your facebook
news feeds over the last 48 hours have been filled with born again social
activists, whose sudden passion for aiding the Ugandan children is spurred on
through widespread online campaigning - in other words "sitting down and
sharing the link on their facebook page" which, let's hope will ignite a
long lasting interest in third world issues and eventuate in much more social
and political awareness than a single act of coating their town/campus in Kony
2012 posters on the 20th of April. Don’t get me wrong – the Invisible Children
propaganda that is appearing online infuriates me, my point is that I hope the
call to action extends to further global issues. It’s amazing how quickly the
movement has spread and with copious amounts of online sharing Whilst it might
sound like I am contradicting myself here, as obviously I am sitting down at my
own laptop to write this entry - I am all for the Kony 2012 movement and am
very impressed at the media and online attention and spread it has received. As
a journalism student it's quite inspiring to see a single person or movement
use social media in such an effective and infectious way. It's amazing
how far a message can spread when it is put together in a simple yet effective
way, it's a tribute that a video that lasts more than 4 minutes is able to so
profoundly capture the attention of a largely Gen Y demographic.
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