{"id":71,"date":"2012-05-22T12:17:29","date_gmt":"2012-05-22T12:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/?p=71"},"modified":"2012-05-29T08:56:42","modified_gmt":"2012-05-29T08:56:42","slug":"exploring-konyism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/threeworlds.campaignstrategy.org\/?p=71","title":{"rendered":"Exploring Konyism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Exploring Konyism<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chris Rose, May 2012\u00a0 chris@campaignstrategy.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

This blog explores the story, marketing, communications structure and wider issues surrounding the controversial Invisible Children \u2018Stop Kony\u2019 video released in March 2012.\u00a0 It concludes that while it is almost impossible to say whether the video did more good than harm, campaigners should evaluate it as a movie, and a movie marketing exercise, not as a campaign.<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

A great deal has been written about the Invisible Children<\/a> (IC) campaign video released earlier this year about Lords Resistance Army leader, Joseph Kony.\u00a0 No doubt there are PhDs on the way, and books<\/a>.\u00a0 Kony\u2019s top commander was recently captured, so it may all be back in the news again soon.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of March, the record-breaking \u00a0Kony video obviously succeeded in attracting a huge online audience, way beyond the expectations of IC. \u00a0\u00a0In so doing it brought attention, scrutiny, admiration and criticism to IC, and in particular to the film-maker Jason Russell.\u00a0 He had put himself in the starring role in the video but became the story himself in a different way, when he was arrested<\/a> for running around San Diego in his underpants and \u2018masturbating in public\u2019\u00a0 on March 16.<\/p>\n

IC runs a cultish project called the \u2018Fourth Estate\u2019 and is accused by some<\/a> of links to right wing American evangelical efforts to introduce anti-gay policies in Uganda.\u00a0 Some wonder if IC is whether it is using its skill and investment in producing charismatic, emotionally compelling videos aimed at impressionable young viewers, to extract funds and recruit supporters for a quite different agenda from the development-aid, and the benevolent helping of children, which it undoubtedly pursues.\u00a0\u00a0 This impression is reinforced by Russell\u2019s own explanation to a Liberty University Convocation (an audience of young American evangelists), recorded on Youtube<\/a>,:<\/p>\n

\u201cthe trick is, to not go out into the world and say, \u2018I\u2019m going to baptise you, I\u2019m going to convince [convict ?] you, I have an agenda to win you over. \u00a0Your agenda is to look into their eyes, as Jesus did, and say \u2018who are you, and will you be my friend ?\u2019\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

Is that what the Kony video was really all for ?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know but the threads and fingerprints of IC and its projects are all over the internet so there is plenty of scope for researchers to look into it.\u00a0 The Kony2012 project though, put that tactic into practice in a way that would stand comparison with the most skilled propaganda.<\/p>\n

Impressions of the Kony Video<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can view the video<\/a> here\u00a0 and read the transcript, here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve not made an exhaustive study of any of the aspects that are relevant to campaigns and the work of NGOs in general but for what it is worth, here are some of my impressions.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve drawn on some email traffic on the ECF<\/a> campaign list, used by people working on digital campaigns for NGOs, where there were extended debates about the pro\u2019s and con\u2019s of many aspects of the film, although I\u2019ve removed reference to individuals or authorship except where people had already gone public with their thoughts.\u00a0 Thanks to all those ECF-ers who wrote about\u00a0 it. \u00a0There are links to some of the many online analyses of Kony2012 at the end of this piece.<\/p>\n

The first email from an ECF member\u00a0 that I saved on this read simply:<\/p>\n

\u201cKONY 2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.<\/em><\/p>\n

I thought you would like to see it. I think it’s one of the best campaign mobilization videos I’ve seen.<\/em><\/p>\n

http:\/\/goo.gl\/QHwd0<\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

And if you can, help the campaign. It’s a good cause too.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Given that it\u2019s going to be hard to argue that the attention generated will not have played a part in efforts to capture him, my guess is that if Kony is finally caught or killed, then at least at the \u2018top level\u2019 the campaign will go down in history as a success.\u00a0 Only if there is some very clear and equally simple negative reaction or side-effect, with attribution receiving equal attention, will it be seen otherwise.\u00a0 It is possible though, that IC may itself inadvertently provide that.<\/p>\n

What To Discuss ?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are many aspects to the Kony 2012 campaign phenomenon, such as:<\/p>\n

1. The structure of the film, including its audience targeting, the story format and how it worked\u00a0 motivationally.<\/p>\n

2. The spread or marketing of the film, especially online.<\/p>\n

3. The offline, on the street actions called for on 20 April.<\/p>\n

4. The wider context of human rights campaigning.<\/p>\n

5. The nature of power, influence and the role of online mobilisation and attention.<\/p>\n

6. The purpose: was it a campaign video or recruitment\u00a0 for an evangelical group ?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. The Structure of the Film<\/strong><\/p>\n

A lot has been written about this.\u00a0\u00a0 It undeniably \u2018worked\u2019 and so there\u2019s a natural tendency to identify content factors which we think we know can help explain this.\u00a0 A lot of the why-it-worked also has to do with what is off-screen, such as the \u2018marketing\u2019, including the role of supporters of IC and their communications strategy.\u00a0 More of that later.<\/p>\n

IC also got lucky: you or I could repeat a similar formula and many, many external factors could lead to a different result.\u00a0 As you can\u2019t control those factors, or even necessarily identify them, one has to take care not to spend too long seeking to identify a magic formula, which doesn\u2019t exist.\u00a0 On the other hand, the researched and tested, and tried and tested factors, are worth identifying.<\/p>\n

The film starts with an emotional ramp up that signifies to Facebook users that they are important because online is powerful and you are part of it.\u00a0 It flatters the anticipated audience.\u00a0 In effect it says \u201cI like you, you are important\u201d, which will trigger the Liking Heuristic (see last Campaign Strategy Newsletter<\/em><\/a> for heuristics).\u00a0 It implies that this is a film by people who are like you (Facebook users), for people like you (so triggering the Similarity Heuristic).<\/p>\n

So the film undoubtedly \u2018starts from where the audience is\u2019.\u00a0 As one ECF film maker commented:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion the film takes the viewer in because the story starts very close to the daily life of the audience. right at the beginning it even talks about the very situation most viewers are in, right the moment of watching, which is “being on facebook”.\u00a0 This way the content of the story is very relevant to most viewers – which makes them keep watching.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/em>later on then the directors use common dramaturgical means of suspense to make people keep watching: they keep a little secret viewers want to know. in this case the secret is: how are they planning to stop kony? what is it that I can do to help? they don\u2019t tell the viewers until the end. every thriller works like that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The video opens by informing us that nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come, and that time is \u2018now\u2019.<\/p>\n

Near the start, sweeping the viewer in from space over the night-time lights of North America, it announces:<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now there are more people on Facebook, than there were on the planet 200 years ago\u201d.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s us.<\/p>\n

Over pictures of parents and children greeting and hugging each other it states:<\/p>\n

\u201cHumanity’s greatest desire is to belong and connect\u201d and in a sentiment that is repeated over and over again which echoes the look-me-in-the-eye and be-my-friend evangelism, \u00a0\u201c And now we see each other, we hear each other…\u201d<\/p>\n

This is straight in under the emotional radar: for example in CDSM\u2019s (www.cultdyn.co.uk<\/a>) values surveys in the UK, \u2018Being A Parent\u2019 is the no.1 identity factor.\u00a0 Almost any viewer but especially children and young people still dependent on their parents, will feel this is true.<\/p>\n

Social media users are shown connecting, face to face, online: \u201cGrandpa, I love you\u201d says a little girl \u201cI love you\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cWhy won’t it take a picture?\u201d asks the grandmother figure:\u00a0 the take-out is that the old can\u2019t do this, the young can. You can: this is your idea, your time has come.<\/p>\n

[narrator] \u201cWe share what we love, and it reminds us what we all have in common\u201d \u2013 on Youtube we see foreign rescue workers holding aloft a beaming little black boy in Haiti, plucked from earthquake wreckage. \u201cDug out alive and well after 7\u00bd days\u201d says CNN.\u00a0 We are being primed for what is to come: North Americans will rescue African children.<\/p>\n

A little American boy shouts to the camera\u00a0 \u201cIf you believe in yourself, you will know how to ride a bike! Rock and roll!\u201d\u00a0 We can do this stuff: more priming.\u00a0\u00a0 The emotional intensity increases as we see a girl crying with delight at getting connected to the internet.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s exciting\u201d a woman confirms.<\/p>\n

Back to space looking down on the planet, the narrator intones: \u201cand this connection is changing the way the world works\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 We see the Arab Spring, twitter,<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernments are trying to keep up… \u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we can taste the freedom. [crowd shouting]\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[narrator] and older generations are concerned\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people are very concerned about tomorrow\u201d [tv presenters and old politicians saying so]. \u201cThey could get worse next year\u201d.<\/p>\n

Back to the God position hovering over the earth:<\/p>\n

\u201c [narrator] The game has new rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

And now as a digital clock runs rapidly down, the narrator explains that \u201cthe next 27 minutes are an experiment. But in order for it to work, you have to pay attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he says: \u201cpay attention\u201d a series of images flash past much too fast to pay attention to, although they do include running figures and the IC\u2019s bizarre red inverted triangle which later symbolizes the new power paradigm.<\/p>\n

Our Promise<\/strong><\/p>\n

So the video makes a promise: that you are going to be able to do something good and great with your power.\u00a0 It will explain how.\u00a0 If you give 27 minutes.\u00a0 It\u2019s a deal, an exchange (triggering the Exchange Heuristic \u2013 I do something for you, so you will do something for me).\u00a0 And if you keep watching at this point, you have committed to that exchange \u2013 you are \u2018in\u2019.\u00a0 The Commitment Heuristic: this means that we tend to develop opinions consistent with our behaviour, and that we tend to go on doing something once we have started.\u00a0 Later the film will deploy to Confirmation Heuristic again, by asking you to share the video.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a lot of discussion about the length: conventionally 27 minutes is \u2018too long\u2019, in fact much too long.\u00a0 Lots of NGOs and others have measured responses to online videos of different lengths and seen a dramatic fall-off as pieces get longer.<\/p>\n

One ECF member wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe major lesson I take away is actually nothing to do with slick websites and beautiful videos, but that:<\/em><\/p>\n

– attention spans for online content are about 17x longer than we thought;<\/em><\/p>\n

– the Kony video shares and justifies on detail the strategy and theory of change behind the actions, including Facebook sharing — we don’t do nearly enough, not nearly enough, of that in most of our campaigns;<\/em><\/p>\n

– we should give our constituencies far more credit for their attention to strategy, and explain to them from the beginning of a campaign the higher barrier asks we will make later\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

But is this true in this case ?\u00a0 How many people leave a cinema because the movie is too long.\u00a0 Probably only if the movie is really bad.\u00a0 It is also much easier to leave if you are on your own but mostly we go with friends.\u00a0 Here the movie makes you feel you are not<\/em> alone \u2013 it\u2019s already done that \u2013 you are part of Facebook, a new, young generation.\u00a0 I also agree with the ECF-er who wrote:<\/p>\n

\u2018The meta-message in the length is “I am confident that this is important”, it is unashamedly grand and ambitious in its aims\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

For this young, mainly female audience, Kony2012 is probably the first and only time they\u2019ve engaged with a \u2018human rights\u2019 issue.\u00a0 So the \u2018too long\u2019 effect which plays strongly amongst audiences considering a \u2018repeat action\u2019, may have much less effect.\u00a0 And the gamble of the movie is that this is a special moment for you, and the intended audience actually does have more time, fewer responsibilities than say their parents, and spends ages online.\u00a0 The intention is that they will have been asked to look at it by a friend.\u00a0 So they\u2019ll want to say they have, and are likely to even if they skip to the action, which is first and foremost to pass it on.\u00a0 Which lots did.\u00a0 Very few took any \u2018higher barrier\u2019 actions.<\/p>\n

Above all, this is not a campaign video in the sense that most campaigners imagine.\u00a0 It is not trying to explain how to make a difference to \u2018an issue\u2019.\u00a0 It\u2019s an entertainment, a morality play, more like a video game or an adventure movie, and perhaps, one which seeks to make us all missionaries in the guise of going on a human rights mission.<\/p>\n

Having established that you, the viewer, are both good and important, the film next shows the joyous birth of a baby.\u00a0 This is a huge emotional trigger for any women watching but also for men.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For young women and teenage girls, it touches a massive aspiration.\u00a0 The baby is of course innocent, blameless and an ideal way to remind the audience that human beings deserve sympathy.<\/p>\n

As it turns out that this child is the narrators\u2019 son Gavin.\u00a0 We start to like the narrator: more alignment.\u00a0\u00a0 The narrator and the little boy he has grown into, then populate the story, along with Jacob, a former victim of Kony\u2019s who we are introduced to through the lens of Facebook (reinforcing the importance of this channel), and his relationship with the author, a story within the story.<\/p>\n

Gavin acts to exonerate the viewer from their ignorance because he personifies it. \u00a0He\u2019s good an innocent and so he makes it ok to be ignorant. \u00a0He hasn\u2019t heard of Kony but he gets to find out.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t know any history but that doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 He later reconfirms the logic \u2013 you can solve the problem because you can now recognize Kony.<\/p>\n

The Plight of Jacob<\/strong><\/p>\n

We see a version of Jacob\u2019s plight through his testimony \u2013 faces and real voices, not arguments or issues \u2013 and are reminded that this would not happen or be tolerated in the US.\u00a0 Clearly, the audience for the Kony film is taken to be American, just as in Hollywood movies designed for worldwide distribution but often market tested to \u2018fit\u2019 the US as the most important single part of the market, \u00a0and sometimes only tested in California, or even Southern California.\u00a0 IC is based in San Diego.\u00a0 We feel good as Americans and primed to extend that goodness to Ugandans.<\/p>\n

This is reinforced when Jacob tells us his dream was to become a lawyer \u2013 something we can identify with.\u00a0\u00a0 But now he\u2019d rather die and be in heaven (a Christian \u2018like us\u2019) because of his plight and fear of Kony, as he won\u2019t ever get to school: something which \u2018we\u2019 the audience take for granted.\u00a0 By now we are flattered and a bit excited and a bit guilty and apprehensive.<\/p>\n

The Inciting Incident<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jason Russell, the film-maker, makes Jacob a promise. This,\u00a0 fairy-tale wise, is the inciting incident.\u00a0 You are now in the morality play of the fairy tale format.\u00a0 Your role and the rest of the campaign flows from this promise.\u00a0 \u201cWe are going to stop them\u201d.<\/p>\n

The film flashes back through nine years of the IC campaign and lets us know that this is the year \u2013 it signals \u201cwhy now\u201d.\u00a0 It creates urgency and a time limited opportunity:\u00a0 \u2018time is running out\u2019, we are going to \u2018change the course of human history\u2019.\u00a0 Dramatically, as in a movie sending a heroic protagonist on a mission, with a video message \u201cthat will self-destruct in twenty seconds\u201d, Jason Russell lets us know that \u201cthis movie expires on 31 December 2012\u201d.\u00a0 If that seems familiar, it\u2019s intended to be.\u00a0 Russell himself likens IC to Pixar.<\/p>\n

Golden Dreams<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are not joining a long struggle or a long campaign. We are not, as it will say later, having to study history, we \u2018are changing it\u2019.<\/p>\n

This is classic Golden Dreamer content (see guide to Prospector Values Modes<\/a> at www.campaignstrategy.org<\/a> ): we will gain the esteem of others with one simple easy act.\u00a0 Many of the young, mostly female audience, will share exactly these values.\u00a0 For them things are not all connected or joined up (Pioneer thinking, typical of human rights professionals and supporters). \u00a0\u00a0Many criticisms of the film focus on its incompleteness but for this audience, that would be simply irrelevant.<\/p>\n

In the Golden Dreamer world, there are discrete, immediately actionable opportunities with no strings attached.\u00a0 This is one.\u00a0 It plays to Prospector (Outer Directed) values. \u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t ask how campaigns work in order to evaluate this video \u2013 ask how spam works.\u00a0 Spam works because some people are persuaded not that the offers are probably true but they hope that they could be true.\u00a0 One of my favourite offers being \u201cGet A Degree Without All the Bothersome Studying\u201d.<\/p>\n

The film indicates who \u201cyou\u201d are with a mosaic shot of grainy self-portraits drawn from something like facebook: mainly young, almost all female.\u00a0 This means me but I won\u2019t be alone (implicit recommendation, reassurance, important for Prospectors, especially Golden Dreamers).<\/p>\n

The narrator explains that he will show us exactly how this change is going to come about. We see\u00a0 a burst of activism such as putting up posters: quick, uncomplicated, social.<\/p>\n

The Proposition<\/strong><\/p>\n

Next we start to establish the elements of the campaign Proposition.\u00a0 We already have a victim and a villain; now we establish the action that can lead to the solution. (See RASPB<\/a> proposition).\u00a0 It\u2019s so simple a child could understand it, so young Gavin gets the task.\u00a0\u00a0 An innocent (like the audience) he\u2019s never heard of Kony and the capturing of children.\u00a0 His reference point for \u2018bad guys\u2019 is \u201cStar Wars\u201d. \u00a0\u00a0He quickly identifies the required result \u2013 stop Kony.<\/p>\n

Gavin is spared the details but the audience gets to know that Kony is wholly bad because he enslaves young girls for sex, turns boys into soldiers who are forced to kill their parents \u2013 surely one of the worst things the youthful audience can imagine \u2013 and mutilates people.\u00a0 He\u2019s interested only in power: \u201che is not fighting for any cause, but only to maintain his power\u201d. It helps that nobody likes him: \u201cHe is not supported by anyone\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not quite the sum of all fears but we have established that force would be justified.\u00a0 Kony is one dimensionally bad, as in a fairy tale or Hollywood fantasy movie.\u00a0 There will be no complexities to introduce doubt or awkward and hard to resolve dilemmas.\u00a0 This is all communication in Daniel Kahneman\u2019s \u2018System 1\u2019, the easy, intuitive way, not System 2 which he calls \u2018effortful\u2019 and requires analysis. \u00a0[Many of the criticisms of the video for example focus on whether Kony is actually the worst, and he\u2019s certainly not the only perpetrator of murder and abduction in the region].<\/p>\n

Just at the point where we might possibly question the analysis, an authority figure from the International Criminal Court appears and explains that of all the bad people, Kony is number one on the list.\u00a0 The \u2018only way to stop him\u2019 is to show he is going to be arrested.\u00a0 The problem is that people don\u2019t know who he is, and therefore there\u2019s a deficit of political will, so the deficit to be made up is public attention.\u00a0 This becomes the difference we are going to make: our vision.\u00a0 The problem is so defined that it fits our means to solve it: we, the networked audience, have the means and the motivation.\u00a0 We feel agency.\u00a0 The jigsaw pieces of problem and solution fit together.<\/p>\n

Ugandan politicians appear on screen and endorse such a mission. \u00a0We learn that back home, IC visits to Washington DC have confirmed the parameters of the problem. \u00a0The audience are let in on the mechanics from a political insiders viewpoint, and so, why their intervention can work \u2013 values expectancy.\u00a0 Politicians explain that although the US could do something about this, it won\u2019t unless there\u2019s enough public opinion for it.\u00a0 The solution lies in our hands.<\/p>\n

Feasibility<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are beginning to see that the three elements required for the three-legged stool of feasibility are in place [1]: an objective matched by activities and by resources.\u00a0\u00a0 Not only should this be done, it can be done.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a tragedy but a scandal that it isn\u2019t being done [2].<\/p>\n

IC explain that they\u2019ve already tried. \u00a0They got \u2018loud and creative\u2019 and lots of young people like you demanded action.\u00a0 They are pictured: the Social Proof Heuristic, lots of others are doing this too, and (Similarity, Liking) they are like you.\u00a0 \u00a0Kony moved out of Uganda into another country (here the film manages to skip over a potential problem of logic), and the Ugandans called for American help.\u00a0 IC gets results: you would be getting onside with a credible operator.<\/p>\n

We see IC\u2019s good works (donate) in building schools and giving hope to victims. \u00a0All funded by young people using their own meagre resources: more flattery. \u00a0They begin to make the invisible, the unseen, visible.\u00a0 Cue upbeat Mumford Brothers music (the Bros come from an evangelical family).<\/p>\n

More pressure as IC meets DC politicians one by one and then a breakthrough moment as Obama sends US Military Advisers to help the hunt.\u00a0 \u00a0It\u2019s another Hollywood format of good guys (ours) and bad guys, and the chances of us becoming the heroes of the hour are increasing by the minute.\u00a0 The goal looks more achievable, the odds shorten in our favour.<\/p>\n

Yet (and here the film could maybe do with a bit more editing) it all hangs in the balance.\u00a0 Sen Inhofe reminds us that people forget.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s got to be 2012.\u00a0 Sombre music and the lessons of history, pictures of Hitler and other bad people.\u00a0 \u201cWe cared but we didn\u2019t know what to do\u201d.\u00a0 The audience is unrelentingly painted in a positive light.\u00a0 Simple stuff, easily verified by the audience\u2019s own experience \u2013 until this moment most hadn\u2019t heard of Kony and wouldn\u2019t, indeed, have known what to do.\u00a0 Even if that doesn\u2019t quite tally with historical reality, such as why it took so long for America to go to war against Hitler, now we will know what to do.<\/p>\n

Our Mission<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anyway, this isn\u2019t a history lesson.\u00a0 \u2018We need to start somewhere and this is it\u2019, with Joseph Kony.\u00a0 Such a \u2018beating-complexity\u2019 offer is classically motivating to a Prospector audience.\u00a0 21 minutes into the 27 minute film the narrator announces at last that we have a game plan, and asks if we are \u201cready\u201d.\u00a0 He signals that we are entering the final act.\u00a0 This part of the quest is our<\/em> mission.<\/p>\n

Now we see that even Gavin could do what\u2019s required.<\/p>\n

Jason Russell: \u201cHere’s the biggest problem. Do you want to know what it is?\u201d<\/p>\n

Gavin \u201cYeah\u201d.<\/p>\n

Russell: \u201cNobody knows who he is\u201d.<\/p>\n

Gavin: \u201cBut I know who he is because I see him on this picture right now\u201d.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s all you have to do \u2013 see the bad guy.<\/p>\n

Next, the film provides us with a why-it-will-work causation, a critical path which shows how our role will make the difference.\u00a0\u00a0 The players we have been introduced to are brought together.\u00a0\u00a0 The military has to find Kony.\u00a0 To do that they need technology and training.\u00a0 The US Advisers will only stay if the US Government wants them to.\u00a0 If they are not to \u2018cancel the mission\u2019 the \u2018people must know\u2019.\u00a0 That will only happen if his name is everywhere. (Cue uplifting music).\u00a0 This is (again) the dream (newspaper headline about Kony captured).\u00a0 Young people: \u201cI know who he is, I see him\u201d.\u00a0 Repetition of simple call and action.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the script of this sequence:<\/p>\n

\u201cbecause now we know what to do.<\/p>\n

Here it is. Ready?<\/p>\n

In order for Kony to be arrested this year,<\/p>\n

the Ugandan military has to find him.<\/p>\n

In order to find him, they need the technology and training to track him in the vast jungle.<\/p>\n

That’s where the American advisors come in.<\/p>\n

But in order for the American advisors to be there,<\/p>\n

the US government has to deploy them.<\/p>\n

They’ve done that, but if the government doesn’t believe the people care about arresting Kony, the mission will be cancelled.<\/p>\n

In order for the people to care, they have to know.<\/p>\n

And they will only know if Kony’s name is everywhere\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s beautifully done. It has the reassuringly childlike rhythm of a nursery rhyme reprise like \u2018The Spider Who Swallowed A Fly\u2019.\u00a0 It bring certainty, causation, and people like that.<\/p>\n

Next comes the \u201chere\u2019s how\u201d, in the style of how-to-use-a feature of Google video. \u00a0Posters will show 20 \u201cculture makers\u201d and \u201c12 policy makers\u201d.\u00a0 A doable few to contact.\u00a0 Celebrities, billionaires \u2013 people in the twitter world.\u00a0 George Clooney, who has already been interviewed, says we will shine a light and make Kony as famous as him.<\/p>\n

Barn-Raising<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a barn-raising feel good vision, the community coming together and setting aside differences.\u00a0 The Democrat Donkey and the Republican Elephant symbolically meet on screen generating a dove symbol where they overlap.\u00a0 A politico explains that just twenty-five phone calls on a topic are enough for it to be \u201cnoted\u201d in the office of an American politician.\u00a0 Your route to power is open.<\/p>\n

An artist explains that lots of people feel powerless \u2013 more self-recognition \u2013 but its been made easy and \u201cdemystified\u201d.\u00a0 The audience is reassured that they don\u2019t ever had to have done anything like this before and it does not matter that they\u2019ve never thought about it before.\u00a0 25th minute.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the tools for changing the course of history will be everyday ones: \u2018yard stickers, posters, fliers\u2019.\u00a0 An Action Kit offers a bracelet, one for you and one for a friend, each with a unique tag id to enter at the website.\u00a0 It will all culminate on 20 April when overnight, the world will be changed (\u2018cover the night\u2019 \u2013 a cultural reference that escaped me ?).\u00a0 Next day people \u2018all over the world\u2019 will wake up and see Kony\u2019s name on \u2018every\u2019 street corner.\u00a0 It is visualised.\u00a0 Reprise of the world changing power of Facebook, which is a \u2018global community\u2019.<\/p>\n

Finally, (a) sign the pledge (2) wear the bracelet (3) donate \u2026 but \u201cabove all\u201d share this video.\u00a0 Confirmation.<\/p>\n

And share they did.\u00a0 The rest is history, at least the history of social media.<\/p>\n

In structure the film is a story and a story of a story, with a quest and obstacles to surmount, like any fairy tale.\u00a0 It turns out we are invited to join in at the last stage, to help overcome the final obstacle, through actions which we know we can do, and which we now know, can work.\u00a0 Complexities and esoteric knowledge (issues) have been rendered irrelevant by use of personification and symbols and frames that we already understand and recognize from movies.\u00a0\u00a0 There is going to be an outpouring of good action from people who, we have seen, are just like us.\u00a0 We are about to do something great.\u00a0 And we can do that immediately, using Facebook.<\/p>\n

Facebook implicitly helps supply the reason why this can work: it is new, it\u2019s made the world work differently, we are not bound by the means of the past, so it makes sense that we can now make history.\u00a0 A self-validating proposition.<\/p>\n

2. The Spread or Marketing of the Film<\/strong><\/p>\n

There were at least two important audiences for the film.\u00a0 One was the uninitiated mass that the authors must have hoped to attract to provide numbers, contagion and signs of activity, and to whom the video is addressed.\u00a0 The other was IC\u2019s existing supporters, some of who would have been involved in the events shown in the video, which is perhaps why that part was reprised at such length.\u00a0 These people were the vital ready-motivated instigators of networking.<\/p>\n

Subsequent analysis by Social Flow<\/a> found:<\/p>\n