What was all the talk about Kony 2012?

KONY 2012

In the past 10-20 years social media has become one of the most predominant sources for news. Anyone who has a Facebook knows that if any monumental event has happened you will find out on Facebook before you even watch the news. This is essential in realizing how significant Facebook, twitter and YouTube have become. After researching the anti- war Vietnam movement that took place during the 60s and early 70’s, I can’t help imagine that movement taking place during the social media era during the present time. The impact that social networking has on the nation could have potentially been the difference in the overthrow of the government. An example of just how fast and popular the social networking transcends on a topic is the KONY 2012 campaign. I, like many others, were not aware of the situations going on in Uganda. But on March 5^th 2012 when a 30-minute video went up on YouTube, made by the Invisible Children Organization, soon after it reached over 60 million viewers. The fact that the video went viral so fast intrigues many and signifies the extraordinary impact that social networking has and could potentially have on various issues.

KONY 2012 -1:45

 The video describes a story of Uganda’s notorious leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Joseph Kony, who is accused of kidnapping thousands of children and turning them into sex slaves and child soldiers. The main idea of the video is to encourage America to capture Kony. Although many have mixed feelings on the subject the idea that so many were intrigued by the video and ready to use action really foreshadows how movements are going to evolve in the next generations to come. It’s an impressive video and I’d encourage you to watch it if you haven’t yet already; just to see what all of the buzz was about.

According to a study by the Pew Research Center, social media played a critical role, especially for young adults under the age of 30.  The study shows how the “Kony 2012″ video and information about it reached so many Americans in a relatively short period of time.  A few key findings:

           - Nearly two-thirds of survey participants heard about the video from some online source.

           - 27% of adults under the age of 30 heard about the video social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

            -Nearly 5 million tweets about the video occurred in the week following its release on March 5, 2012.

Overall, the internet was more than three times as important as traditional media (i.e. television, newspaper, radio) in spreading the news about the video for adults.