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By Any Media Necessary: Mapping Youth and Participatory PoliticsMain MenuMain MenuProject BackgroundBook CompanionThis Path Provides an Experience as a Companion to the BookConversation Starters on Digital VoiceA navigation path based on themes to inspire conversationFeatured Groups and OrganizationsLanding page for index of featured groups, organizations, and individualsWorkshopsDigital Media ToolkitProjects for foundational media making skillsMedia LibraryEducator CollaborationsGlossary and ResourcesUSC / MacArthur
“Watch 30 Minute Video on Internet, Become Social Activist”
12013-08-05T11:31:48-07:00Gabriel Peters-Lazaro3bc3965831120bc593545fef6d0da73657e21ea061038A short video on the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), by the organization Invisible Childrenstructured_gallery2015-03-23T11:35:01-07:00yomna elsayed8508c5b4231ef0586c839c1d6e354950c1246c49In Spring 2012, Invisible Children (IC), a San Diego-based human rights organization, released Kony 2012, a thirty minute video about child soldiering in Uganda. IC anticipated that the video might reach half a million viewers over a two month campaign. Instead, it reached more than 70 million viewers over the first four days and over 100 million over the first week. The video’s rapid circulation was heavily fueled by high school and college students, coupled with church groups. By comparison, America’s highest rated television shows reach 40-45 million per week, and Hunger Games, the top Hollywood blockbuster that week, drew 15-20 million viewers. Inspired by the video’s own celebration of the power of social media to change the world, IC's young supporters had demonstrated the capacity of grassroots networks to shift the national agenda. But, Kony 2012 drew sharp criticism from many established human rights groups and Africa experts, questioning everything from IC’s finances to its “white man’s burden” rhetoric. IC was especially challenged for being out of sync with current Ugandan realities and promoting responses some argued might do more harm than good. Critics have seen Kony 2012 as illustrating the kinds of institutional filters and ideological blinders that have long shaped communication between the Global North and South. Kony 2012 quickly became emblematic of a larger debate concerning attention-driven activism. As the controversy surrounding the video intensified, the filmmaker, Jason Russell, had a highly public meltdown itself captured on video and widely circulated online. Cut off from the besieged leadership, many young IC supporters lacked the skills and information needed to defend their positions or for that matter, to reflect more deeply about the complexities they were encountering within the larger debate around the campaign. IC’s approach demonstrated enormous “spreadability” (the capacity to “spread” its messages) but limited “drillability” (the ability to “drill” deep into the issues.) Using our four year plus of researching Invisible Children as an extended illustration, this chapter will introduce the core concept of participatory politics. As we do so, we take seriously the critiques leveled against the Kony 2012 campaign, but we also take seriously what participation in the movement meant to young people around the world for whom circulating and commenting on this video might have been their first expressions as citizens. While many “traditional” civic organizations enable youth to participate based on an apprenticeship model, many of our examples here exhibit a more participatory model, in which young people are taking control of and shaping their own modes of engagement. In this model, learning takes place not only vertically, from expert to mentor, but also horizontally, from peer to peer. Such sites often blend the distinction between interest-based and friendship-based networks that have informed other work in the Connected Learning tradition: Young people may enter based on shared interests, may work towards collective goals, yet in the process, they become integrated into rich social communities that often motivate and reward their continued participation. Invisible Children is a fascinating hybrid of these more established and emergent models: locating many of its chapters in schools and churches, yet creating ample opportunities for learning through participation.
Media Referenced in Chapter 2
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1media/medilibraryimage3.jpgmedia/medilibraryimage3.jpg2013-08-14T16:31:35-07:00Gabriel Peters-Lazaro3bc3965831120bc593545fef6d0da73657e21ea0Book Companionyomna elsayed71This Path Provides an Experience as a Companion to the Bookimage_header274622016-09-01T09:36:01-07:00yomna elsayed8508c5b4231ef0586c839c1d6e354950c1246c49
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12013-08-12T10:28:03-07:00Gabriel Peters-Lazaro3bc3965831120bc593545fef6d0da73657e21ea0MOVE: Invisible Children's new film from the creators of KONY 20127This short documentary describes how the KONY 2012 video came about, how the team came about, and what the future holds for Invisible Chldren and the video's millenials audience.plain2015-02-08T00:31:19-08:00Ritesh Mehtaf6bb7237e7d4a245c56fe5016bb295dc579e3d58
12013-08-12T10:28:03-07:00Gabriel Peters-Lazaro3bc3965831120bc593545fef6d0da73657e21ea0Who is the LRA // Invisible Children6Explanation of who the LRA is, and the group's connection to Invisible Childrenplain2015-05-22T23:55:20-07:00Ritesh Mehtaf6bb7237e7d4a245c56fe5016bb295dc579e3d58
1media/meme_you_saved_Africa.jpg2014-10-06T22:43:08-07:00yomna elsayed8508c5b4231ef0586c839c1d6e354950c1246c49Congratulations You Saved Africa4Meme: You Shared Kony 2012, Congratulations You Saved Africamedia/meme_you_saved_Africa.jpgplain2015-02-19T13:31:24-08:00Diana Lee0c994d7f9dc5ee78dc93d8c823c300c060b9c890
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12013-08-12T10:28:03-07:00KONY 201210The original KONY 2012 by Invisible Children was widely shared upon its release and now has 100+ million viewsplain2015-02-01T10:55:50-08:00
12014-10-06T20:38:55-07:00Watch 30 Minute Video on Internet, Become Social Activist5Meme: To become a social activist, (all) you need (is) to watch a 30 minute video on the internet.media/Chapter2-Figure1.jpgplain2015-02-01T22:38:33-08:00
12014-10-13T16:11:06-07:00Invisible Children and Time Magazine Covers3The impact of Invisible Children seen through Time Magazine coversmedia/Chapter2-Figure5.jpgplain2015-02-01T22:40:40-08:00
12014-10-06T22:59:22-07:00Invisible Children Social Network Graph2The networks that made possible the unprecedented spread of Kony 2012media/Chapter2-Figure4.jpgplain2015-02-01T22:47:45-08:00