![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.vanguardia.com.mx\/XStatic\/vanguardia\/images\/espanol\/kony2012.jpg\" "\\"la")
But beyond the headlines and the celebrities another phenomenon has appeared on the stage: the social networks and their viral “infection”. Facebook, Twitter, Flicker are powerful weapons serving the Citizen Journalism, helping people all over the world to share information and to protest against cruelty. These tools -plus an intense feeling of outrage- made possible both the Arab Spring as the Spanish Revolution. Or the live-twitted<\/a> Osama Bin Laden\u00b4s killing by a Pakistani man named Sohaaib Athar. Even the few journalists that went in the Syrian city of Homs shared with the readers the barbarities they witnessed thanks to Twitter. In this 2.0 world everybody can convey whatever they please to a global audience at unprecedented levels.<\/p>\nKony2012: more cons than pros<\/strong><\/h3>\nThat\u00b4s what happened to Kony2012<\/a>, the video launched by the American charity \u201cInvisible Children\u201d<\/a>as part of a campaign -whose logo is astonishingly reminiscent of that of Emporio Armani- aimed at arresting and bringing under justice Robert Kony, an Ugandan warlord and leader of the Army of the Lord. Almost 100 million of people have watched and shared it through the Net. \u201cNothing is more powerful than an idea whose time is now\u201d, you can read at the opening. An amazing production, the commercial-Coke-look-like appearance along the cultural heavyweights\u00b4 support from their Twitter accounts such as Oprah Winfried, Angelina Jolie or Lady Gaga are the keys of this incredible success. But the truth is that from the whole 28 minutes\u00b4 footage only three are devoted to depicting shallowly, without any background at all, the soldier child\u00b4s situation in Uganda. The master stroke is given by the Ugandan child mourning inconsolably his brother\u00b4s death while fading into black.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.relatemag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/childsoldiers.jpg\" "\\"Relatemag\\"")
Along with the millions of followers, Kony2012 has also ignited fierce criticism. The current Ugandan PM, Amama Mbabazi, has slammed on a video response<\/a> in Youtube\u2013same media, same expected results – the view given by \u201cInvisible Children\u201d. \u201cWe don\u00b4t need a video for us to take notice on the grief caused by Kony to the Ugandan people\u201d, states crossly. \u201cI contacted each of those 20 international celebs and invited them to visit Uganda\u201d, adds Mbabazi. Some African NGO\u00b4s, as the World Peace Foundation and his director Alex de Waal<\/a>, go beyond. \u201cI have a number of concerns about the impact of simplistic and paternalistic portrayals of African problems, in which Africans are treated as children waiting for Americans and Europeans to save them. I have concerns about military action being presented as the principal solution\u201d, declares. They are working for peace in Uganda combining military and non-military solutions. From these lasts are remarkable the reconciliation efforts, the comprehensive dialogue and the \u201cDisarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Initiative\u201d.<\/p>\nManipulation and archetypes <\/strong><\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/kony2012-2-300x164.png\" "\\"kony2012-2\\"")
<\/a>As if in a Philip K. Dick\u00b4s novel, Kony2012 has been replied by Anonymus<\/a> in the same battlefield: the Net. Addresing to the \u201ccitizens of the world\u201d, they say that Invisible Children<\/em> is using this \u201cvideo-propaganda\u201d as a \u201cbrainwashing experiment\u201d in order to support \u201cthe USA military invasion to steal the Ugandan oil\u201d. \u201cWhat Invisible Children is not able to prove to the public is where their money is going to\u201d, they add.<\/p>\nLong is the list of experts in communication that have warned of the manipulation contained at the video, and of simplifying of child soldier problem<\/a> by reducing it to an archetype of \u201cwhite saves black\u201d. On the other hand, Amnesty International USA subscribes to the critics targeting the message \u2013since the real goal is Kony facing due process in a competent court- but not the means. \u201cWhy don\u00b4t use them to encourage people to act, for instance, against what is happening in Syria right now?\u201d wonders the Human Rights organization. In fact, AI was one of the first in using cyber-activism.<\/p>\nBut the Kony2012\u00b4s plea is neither addressed to the ICC- not signed yet by the USA despite of the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno\u00b4s presence in the video – nor the UN, neither the governments of the four countries involved in this -Uganda, South Sudan, DRC and Central African Republic- but the USA congressmen, social prescribers and American people. \u201cIf people are not interested in it, the government won\u00b4t send its advisers to came into the dense jungle to seek Kony\u201d. Naturally Barak Obama heeded the appeal: in October 2011 a hundred soldiers were sent to \u201coversee\u201d the area and \u201chelp the Uganda army in Robert Kony\u00b4s detention\u201d. This event is perceived by the Invisible Children\u00b4s staff and supporters as a victory in the name of \u201cwhat is right\u201d against the other military actions taken by the EEUU army, classified in the video as \u201cself-defense\u201d. But what they don\u2019t tell about is a similar attempt to catch this killer backfired three years earlier. In revenge Joseph Kony slaughtered hundreds of civilians, including women and children.<\/p>\n
Message and audience: the advantages of being viral<\/strong><\/h3>\nJournalists and HR workers have been raising their voices for years against this tragedy with any visible result. The journalist and ex-missionary Jose Carlos Rodriguez Soto related on his blog, “I remember many sleepless nights spent in the mid 90’s with my old Olivetti typing accounts of atrocities and lists of abducted children who later were sent to embassies and UN offices but we met with the most absolute silence finally”. So where does it lay the Kony2012\u00b4s success?.<\/p>\n
As the tech specialist Delia Rodriguez wrote in El Pa\u00eds, \u201cKony is the memetic propaganda\u00b4s \u2013a meme<\/em> is a cultural unit that human beings spend the day sharing among us- greatest hit. Kony is made to activate all the viral springs and urge us to pass around\u201d. Regarding Visible Measures<\/em>, is the video campaign with the faster growth in history.<\/p>\n![\"UNICEF-child](\"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/child_soldiers-unicef1.png\" "\\"child_soldiers-unicef\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nEven more, it fundraised $5 million only in the first 48 hours \u2013currently the Action Kit<\/em> is sold out-. And this whirl has affected not only the video itself but the articles generated, either in favor or against.<\/p>\nDespite the lights and shadows, this 2.0 era phenomenon have put the child soldiers issue back on the global agenda as<\/a> David Smith highlights in the Guardian Development section and\u00a0have triggered the remittance of 5,000 soldiers under the \u00a0UN and AU\u00b4s flag. \u00a0But, for how longer? The toda\u00b4s Twitter\u00b4s trendy topic is tomorrow\u00b4s oblivion. The use of social networks is steadily driving news to be more ephemeral than ever. And given that the chance for saving any kind of file in different devices exists, we are using our memory brain lesser and lesser. Will we recall these children and their grief tomorrow?<\/p>\nThis is a nonprofit explanation.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kony2012 has become the most viral video in history reaching over 100 million views in just 4 days. The video whose purpose is to bring under justice Robert Kony, an Ugandan warlord and leader of the Army of the Lord, has raised huge awareness on the issue of child soldiers in Africa, but also big criticisms for its simplicity and paternalistic approach.
CONTINUE READING<\/a>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":6164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[300,169],"tags":[2903,3055,3054],"class_list":["post-6134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","category-culture","tag-child-soldiers","tag-kony","tag-kony-2012"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/kony2012_documentary.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6134"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6162,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6134\/revisions\/6162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Long is the list of experts in communication that have warned of the manipulation contained at the video, and of simplifying of child soldier problem<\/a> by reducing it to an archetype of \u201cwhite saves black\u201d. On the other hand, Amnesty International USA subscribes to the critics targeting the message \u2013since the real goal is Kony facing due process in a competent court- but not the means. \u201cWhy don\u00b4t use them to encourage people to act, for instance, against what is happening in Syria right now?\u201d wonders the Human Rights organization. In fact, AI was one of the first in using cyber-activism.<\/p>\n But the Kony2012\u00b4s plea is neither addressed to the ICC- not signed yet by the USA despite of the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno\u00b4s presence in the video – nor the UN, neither the governments of the four countries involved in this -Uganda, South Sudan, DRC and Central African Republic- but the USA congressmen, social prescribers and American people. \u201cIf people are not interested in it, the government won\u00b4t send its advisers to came into the dense jungle to seek Kony\u201d. Naturally Barak Obama heeded the appeal: in October 2011 a hundred soldiers were sent to \u201coversee\u201d the area and \u201chelp the Uganda army in Robert Kony\u00b4s detention\u201d. This event is perceived by the Invisible Children\u00b4s staff and supporters as a victory in the name of \u201cwhat is right\u201d against the other military actions taken by the EEUU army, classified in the video as \u201cself-defense\u201d. But what they don\u2019t tell about is a similar attempt to catch this killer backfired three years earlier. In revenge Joseph Kony slaughtered hundreds of civilians, including women and children.<\/p>\n Journalists and HR workers have been raising their voices for years against this tragedy with any visible result. The journalist and ex-missionary Jose Carlos Rodriguez Soto related on his blog, “I remember many sleepless nights spent in the mid 90’s with my old Olivetti typing accounts of atrocities and lists of abducted children who later were sent to embassies and UN offices but we met with the most absolute silence finally”. So where does it lay the Kony2012\u00b4s success?.<\/p>\n As the tech specialist Delia Rodriguez wrote in El Pa\u00eds, \u201cKony is the memetic propaganda\u00b4s \u2013a meme<\/em> is a cultural unit that human beings spend the day sharing among us- greatest hit. Kony is made to activate all the viral springs and urge us to pass around\u201d. Regarding Visible Measures<\/em>, is the video campaign with the faster growth in history.<\/p>\n Even more, it fundraised $5 million only in the first 48 hours \u2013currently the Action Kit<\/em> is sold out-. And this whirl has affected not only the video itself but the articles generated, either in favor or against.<\/p>\n Despite the lights and shadows, this 2.0 era phenomenon have put the child soldiers issue back on the global agenda as<\/a> David Smith highlights in the Guardian Development section and\u00a0have triggered the remittance of 5,000 soldiers under the \u00a0UN and AU\u00b4s flag. \u00a0But, for how longer? The toda\u00b4s Twitter\u00b4s trendy topic is tomorrow\u00b4s oblivion. The use of social networks is steadily driving news to be more ephemeral than ever. And given that the chance for saving any kind of file in different devices exists, we are using our memory brain lesser and lesser. Will we recall these children and their grief tomorrow?<\/p>\n This is a nonprofit explanation.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kony2012 has become the most viral video in history reaching over 100 million views in just 4 days. The video whose purpose is to bring under justice Robert Kony, an Ugandan warlord and leader of the Army of the Lord, has raised huge awareness on the issue of child soldiers in Africa, but also big criticisms for its simplicity and paternalistic approach.Along with the millions of followers, Kony2012 has also ignited fierce criticism. The current Ugandan PM, Amama Mbabazi, has slammed on a video response<\/a> in Youtube\u2013same media, same expected results – the view given by \u201cInvisible Children\u201d. \u201cWe don\u00b4t need a video for us to take notice on the grief caused by Kony to the Ugandan people\u201d, states crossly. \u201cI contacted each of those 20 international celebs and invited them to visit Uganda\u201d, adds Mbabazi. Some African NGO\u00b4s, as the World Peace Foundation and his director Alex de Waal<\/a>, go beyond. \u201cI have a number of concerns about the impact of simplistic and paternalistic portrayals of African problems, in which Africans are treated as children waiting for Americans and Europeans to save them. I have concerns about military action being presented as the principal solution\u201d, declares. They are working for peace in Uganda combining military and non-military solutions. From these lasts are remarkable the reconciliation efforts, the comprehensive dialogue and the \u201cDisarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Initiative\u201d.<\/p>\nManipulation and archetypes <\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/a>As if in a Philip K. Dick\u00b4s novel, Kony2012 has been replied by Anonymus<\/a> in the same battlefield: the Net. Addresing to the \u201ccitizens of the world\u201d, they say that Invisible Children<\/em> is using this \u201cvideo-propaganda\u201d as a \u201cbrainwashing experiment\u201d in order to support \u201cthe USA military invasion to steal the Ugandan oil\u201d. \u201cWhat Invisible Children is not able to prove to the public is where their money is going to\u201d, they add.<\/p>\nMessage and audience: the advantages of being viral<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
CONTINUE READING<\/a>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":6164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[300,169],"tags":[2903,3055,3054],"class_list":["post-6134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","category-culture","tag-child-soldiers","tag-kony","tag-kony-2012"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/kony2012_documentary.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6134"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6162,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6134\/revisions\/6162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}