If you live in the 21st Century, then you must have heard of Kony. Not so long ago, a video, or say a movement, started on Youtube. A group of young people started a movement to put an end to child soldiers and to finally capture one of our time’s greatest criminals, Joseph Kony. Invisible Children Inc. created the video, under the slogan of ‘Stop KONY’. It reached 93 million views on Youtube and 17 million views on Vimeo. No one questions the importance of stopping the accumulation of child soldiers, for children shouldn’t be dealing with war and violence. What I question is, does the world really need ‘our’ awareness to find a criminal and to free the children of Africa? When did the world ask for our opinion, needless to say our help?
After the video went viral, people started analyzing the video and the movement itself. It seemed rather odd to me, and I’m sure to a lot of other people, that the world needed our help to find a criminal. Yes, awareness is always vital, but there was something about this movement that I can’t quite put my finger on. Malcolm X once said, ‘“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power.’ We, as people, don’t know our true power. We buy whatever the media sells us, and we do not take the time to analyze or think through what’s being handed to us. As I sit and write this article, I can’t help but ask: Where’s KONY? Does the silence of this once viral movement indicate the freedom of the children? The children who, according to the narrators of the KONY 2012 video, are the main concern of this whole propaganda?
The world has no problem with starting wars, internally or externally, and now it seems like it needs our help to find a criminal. I can’t help but smile at the irony of it all. To clear one thing up, I’m not against awareness. Yes, the world needs to be aware of the fact that thousands of children worldwide are being deprived of an education and of a childhood, and those children need to be saved. I’m targeting the lack of transparency in the media, and how it, whether we agree on it or not, controls the minds of the youth. The media, in fact, has the ability to brainwash an entire generation.
In a world of smartphones and Wi-Fi, the media has the power to make absolutely anything go viral. We belong to one of the most dangerous generations to have existed, for the ideas of the youth nowadays can easily be tampered with. We as people need to acknowledge our importance. We can’t afford to let the media spoon feed us lies at our own will. So, dear media, please answer my question: Where is KONY now?
Totally agree with you. The media brain washes , always putting a spin on its own interests. People follow what they are fed through the media often blindly. They think " its in the news so must be true"!