The role of social media in sharing Kony 2012 video

The role of social media in sharing Kony 2012 video

#kony2012

A 30-minute video advocacy campaign exposing Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony got viral last week on the web reaching 17 million views on Vimeo and about 80 million views on YouTube.
The Kony 2012 video, realised by Invisible Children, generated a huge debate, amongst others, about how to conduct an advocacy campaign, how to cover complex issues trying to reach a wide audience or how to report on Uganda problems.
From a journalistic point of view, what was most interesting is how the video went viral so quickly thanks to the role of social media and online sharing.
An article on Forbes illustrated the 12 lessons we can learn from the video about how powerful social media can be in aiming for social changes.

Joseph Kony vs. Bashar al-Assad

Posted By David Kenner Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - 2:38 PM

#kony2012 #kony #bashar

Here's a puzzle. A video calling for international action to capture Joseph Kony, a Ugandan guerilla who commands a couple hundred men and has killed 151 civilians during the past year, has been viewed by a whopping 76 million people on Youtube. Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- who boasts 600,000 men under arms, along with almost 5,000 battle tanks, and who often kills over 100 people a day, according to activists -- generates exponentially less outrage.

Kony 2012: Viral video for the misinformed?

Kony 2012: Viral video for the misinformed?

Published: 08 March, 2012, 19:35  Edited: 09 March, 2012, 01:13
Kony 2012: The latest cause célèbre that has most likely taken your Facebook newsfeed by storm. But while few would criticize putting indicted Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony in prison, the motives of the latest viral video campaign are less clear.

Has Obama Just Kicked Off Another Oil War -- This Time in Africa?

By Steve Horn

Here's what is likely behind Obama's decision to send special forces to Uganda.

On Friday, October 14, President Barack Obama announced he would be sending 100 Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) forces to Uganda to "remove from the battlefield" (meaning capture or kill) the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), Joseph Kony. "I believe that deploying these U.S. Armed Forces furthers U.S. national security interests and foreign policy and will be a significant contribution toward counter-LRA efforts in central Africa," wrote Obama in a letter to U.S. House Majority Leader, John Boehner, R-OH.