Argumentative Essay On Kony 2012

The Kony 2012 campaign began in 2003, when Invisible Children's Jason Russel and his fellow San-Diego film-makers traveled to East Africa in search of a story. There they discovered a civil war in Uganda, where Joseph Kony and his rebel army, the lords resistance army or (LRA), were abducting children and forcing them to become soldiers. A war which western civilization didn't know existed. (invisiblechildren.com) The non-profit organization redirected their films focus to Joseph Kony, resulting in the release of the documentary, Invisible Children: The Rough Cut. Within a week of the video's release, the 30 minuet video had gone viral with 112 million views not including traditional media platforms. (Shirley, 3) So what lead Kony 2012 to circulate so effectively through primarily social media and take up a position in my personal life? Invisible children used viral marketing as well as other motivational tactics to attract individuals to their cause, with the intentions of a form of action towards policy makers in the United States. Theres an overarching theme of “ anyone can make a
Invisible Children are explicit about its intentions as Jason Russel said, “we are making Kony world news by redefining the propaganda that we see all day every day” (Shirley, pg. 4) It is in this way that the campaign is built on controlling Kony's constructed brand image. Therefore, Invisible Children has the capacity to control the image while creating propaganda to encourage the virility of their message.
As Shirley cites,
“...images have emotional and ideological holds over people and in their acts of iconoclasm, they tacitly consent to this power, “enchanting” the images they oppose (Koerner, 2008, p. 87). The emotional response against the representation (or enchantment of the image) amplifies the images’ power...”
(Shirley, pg