Coming soon: Kony 2012

The Good Life with Eli F.J. Tajanlangit

One problem with the explosion of information in the Internet is how to distinguish between fact and fiction, truth and propaganda, news and fantasy. With millions of pages, blogs, web sites, e-mail blasts and social networks on overdrive, it is now more difficult to choose which information to take seriously and which to throw to the trash bin.

It is not like in the recent past, when we had just a handful of newspapers and other media, which we were familiar with, so that we knew which ones told us things without embellishments and which ones followed the line of vested interest groups.

That fact is highlighted in the case of Kony 2012, a successful lobby that is now starting to move not just individuals, but entire governments as well. Last year, reports say Invisible Children Inc., which runs the Kony 2012 campaign, drew $13 million in donations. The American government is sending military advisers to Uganda to help achieve Kony 2012’s ultimate objective, which is to capture the warlord Joseph Kony.

Celebrities like George Clooney and Oprah Winfrey have added their voices to the campaign.  And, as in most success stories in the world, hundreds of video clips and other materials attacking Kony 2012 have surfaced, especially in YouTube and Facebook which have become battlegrounds for those waging cyber campaigns. The attacks on Kony 2012 range from the campaign being part of the war-mongering right wing, to misuse of funds and even outright dishonesty. There is also a story that one of the founders of ICI and the filmmaker who did the hugely popular Kony 2012 video, Jason Russell, was caught for sexual misconduct.

Google Kony 2012 and you’ll know what I mean – a whole range of materials are available at the click of your fingers. Now which of them are worthy to watch or read first and which of them to believe, nobody can tell you.

This is why Kony 2012 is such a phenomenon. For an idea, a campaign, or a cause or a product to stand out in such a universe is no mean feat. I am sure people will look up to this for the lessons, for some kind of formula on how to capture the imagination of Netizens in the wide, wide, web.

At the heart of the Kony 2012 campaign is a 29:59 minuter video about the warlord Joseph Kony and the atrocities he has inflicted on the Ugandan children. There is a heart-wrenching story there of a Ugandan child, who wants to die because he sees no hope for him and his brother.

ICI wants Kony arrested this year and the video is supplemented by a whole range of other materials. It distributes bracelets, posters, streamers and t-shirts –- the works that attend political campaigns. Quite creatively, ICI is combining the traditional – election campaign materials – with non-trads – video clips – and new and old media to run its campaign. It has a web site and Facebook page, and through these, it has mobilized hundreds of thousands to act on its agenda. Make Kony famous, it says, make him a celebrity.  While it achieves in this star making, ICI fuels the campaign, and eggs on its believers to keep the donations flowing in and the pressure on policy makers to do something to arrest the warlord. Of course it is now being accused of making money out of this, but that remains to be proven – unless of course I missed something that’s been uploaded on the Net.

On April 20, 2012, ICI is activating a global campaign that aims to “wrap the world” with Kony 2012 posters and materials. That bears watching, and not just to see how massive and widespread the campaign has become.

It should be interesting to know how the campaign will fare in the face of a stepped-up onslaught of negative materials on the Net. Me, I just want to see if any of these materials also pop up physically in the Philippines and Bacolod, too.*

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