Kony 2012: It was everywhere – every news feed, every status update, every blog and publication and news outlet. In fact, if you haven’t heard of this phenomenon, I suggest you crawl out from the rock you’ve been living under and join the 21st century.
The ‘Kony 2012’ video was created by the organization Invisible Children to raise awareness about the atrocities committed by the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony in an effort to help bring him to justice. The video was posted last week and received 100 million views in just six days, making ‘Kony 2012’ a bigger media sensation than Susan Boyle’s performance on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.
The new epitome of viral video, ‘Kony 2012’ is not only a supremely compelling documentary, but also an incredibly interesting case study from a PR perspective. To start, the ubiquity of the video over the past week has been phenomenal. It spread through social media as well as traditional media outlets like nothing we’ve seen before. But how did it become such an event? It’s not as though Kony’s story is breaking news, and there have certainly been equally horrendous atrocities documented across the globe, but for some reason this particular video, among thousands of videos with similar content, really resonated with people. But again, why? What is it that makes a video become viral?
I have a somewhat cynical theory that relates the popularity of the Kony video to the Tom’s Shoes fad – it’s a great way for Americans to feel good about themselves while being trendy without actually having to really do anything. I suppose it’s a sad commentary on American lifestyle, but hey, it got the message out there.
Which brings me to my next point: yes, the video was a “clickable moment” and spurred countless donations and purchases. However, how much action will the video actually prompt? Will it actually help the cause? Will Joseph Kony be arrested and prosecuted based on the strides taken by Invisible Children? Unfortunately, its seems like due to poor PR on behalf of Invisible Children, the popularity of ‘Kony 2012’ could actually hinder efforts already underway. As soon as the video went viral so did the criticisms of Invisible Children’s background. Rumors circulated about the organization’s funding and leadership, and a great deal of controversy began to envelop the message they were trying to communicate. Only recently, one of the co-founders, Jason Russell was arrested under unseemly circumstances, which is, again, creating buzz and ink for ‘Kony 2012’ but doing nothing to help the cause.
This, in turn, illustrates one of the problems with receiving news through social media. It seems as though if the content is scandalous, shocking, or moving enough and there is sufficient hype around the story, people don’t really consider the source of the news. People tend to take in the information at face value without considering that there is no “gate keeper” or publisher or editor that makes judgment calls about the news we read. It is completely unfiltered and we are left to deem for ourselves what is valid information and what is not.
Overall, I think ‘Kony 2012’ delivers an important message about an important topic. It raises awareness about a serious global issue and was able to permeate the social web with unprecedented speed and reach. But the fact is, the public relations and personal issues of the Invisible Children may have hindered any positive attention that the viral video had attained for the cause. I’m still on the fence about whether the adage is true – is there really no such thing as bad press? All of the negative publicity may be keeping ‘Kony 2012’ in the news, but is it productive?
Share on Facebook
Technorati Tags: Invisible Children, Joseph Kony, Kony 2012, Social Media, Viral video
