Friday, March 09, 2012

Power of Internet... and Social Media - Kony 2012

The power of Internet, and in particular social media, has resulted in information widespread at a tremendous and scary speed.

Uganda's Kony
This is the best example.

The video was created and uploaded to Youtube by a charity group called Invisible Children 4 days ago on  5th March.


The video was very well produced and with the push of social media, the video has 52 million views in 4 days.


Invisible Children manage to raised $5Mil in 48 hours, reported by National Post.

A lot of people (I'm referring mostly to my friends) talks about supporting the cause instantly after watching the video. I was quite convinced with the video without second thoughts at first, until one of my friend posted on my Facebook wall.



I started digging down the rabbit hole. 

Some artist, including Justin Bieber supported the cause.


The are few news coverage on this viral video. Some supported, some critiqued on the financial transparency and expenses of Invisible Children, mislead the crowd and oversimplifythe situation in Uganda.
It stinks of easy answers, of foreign do-goodery, of over-simplistic interference that gives us all a nice warm fuzzy glow.
- Tory Shepherd
Invisible Children reports that in an official account of the $13.7 million raised in the 2010/11 financial year, $8.8 million was allocated for expenses - including filming costs, transportation and production.
- news.com.au

And another video spawned after a few days, titled Somebody is Lying.



Epilogue

Until the facts are made clear, I shall withhold my judgement on this issue. Indeed the video clearly delivered the information that justify the supports for arresting Kony. But on the other hand, the other video seems legit also.

Shall conclude this with this article that titled
"People Aren't Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish, Scientists Say"
- livescience.com
The power of freedom is good, but sometimes it boils down to this fundamental problem - Are majority of people capable enough exercise critical thinking or... are majority of people still "lack the mental tools needed to make meaningful judgments".



References:
http://www.news.com.au/world/its-all-over-the-webs-but-what-is-a-kony/story-e6frfkyi-1226292956990
http://www.invisiblechildren.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/critiques.html
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.reviews&orgid=12429
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/07/joseph-kony-invisible-children_n_1326759.html
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/08/kony-2012-video-raises-5m/


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