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As you can see, all I have done is proven how effective and well-made all of the propaganda is. That's because frankly, all of these things were very creative and persuasive. Many people have bought into what KONY 2012 has to offer. One of the main symbols of the movement is the fourth estate. Originally, he fourth estate was symbolic of the press, the journalists, and the editors, with their "irrepressible, incalculable" manner (Carlyle). The press was powerful and representative of the people. KONY 2012's use of this symbol is accurate in their attempt to create a social force, and in fact some people did respond with the preferred meaning to this symbol and this campaign, seeing their responsibility as a part of the fourth estate to change the current situation caused by Joseph Kony.
In order to get a glimpse of what people were thinking after hearing about the KONY 2012 campaign, I tapped into Facebook and checked out the responses on walls for the "Cover the Night" event and responses towards the campaign in general. Of the people who left responses, I chose responses from people who seemed to fit the age range of 18-30, because "within a few day's of the video's release, 58% of American Adults, age 18-30 had heard of KONY" and young adults were the "driving force behind its viral exposure (Heinz)."From these responses, you can tell that people are outraged that they hadn't been informed of this earlier. They want to take action. They bought the merchandise and the action kit. They wanted to form marches and incite change. This response coincides with the preferred reading of the propaganda, because with attitudes like those from this audience group, the Invisible Children would accomplish everything that they wanted, by making Joseph Kony famous. From these responses, you can tell that people are outraged that they hadn't been informed of this earlier. They want to take action. They bought the merchandise and the action kit. They wanted to form marches and incite change. This response coincides with the preferred reading of the propaganda, because with attitudes like those from this audience group, the Invisible Children would accomplish everything that they wanted, by making Joseph Kony famous. These people are interpellated by everything that Jason Russell has said, much like I was before I started hearing other information and facts about KONY 2012 and the Invisible Children. These people are also examples of the people who blindly followed as soon as they heard about the movement, without doing any research of their own. This is apparent because if they had done their research, they would have seen that the money that they are fundraising is not going towards the kids that they think they are supporting. They could have looked at the Invisible Children's 2011 public budget online, which boasts $1,074,273 spent on travel for a total of $1,724,993 on staff compensation, which comes to a grand total of $2,799,266 which is roughly the same ball park as their direct service budget, which was $2,810,681 (Invisible Children). When a nonprofit whose goal is to provide on the ground services for children in need and to stop a internationally wanted war criminal, it's a little suspicious when they're spending almost just as much money to pay and fly around their staff as they donate to said ground services. Also. Supporting this statement, Riley Wilson states in his evaluation of KONY 2012 that " Charity Navigator, which evaluates charities, Invisible Children gets two of four stars for transparency and accountability. Some critics contend that the group directs more money to media production and salaries than to direct services." |
