(The Beacon)
By
Joseph Kony.
Most of you probably know the name after watching the nonprofit Invisible Children's 30-minute documentary "Kony 2012," which aims to make the warlord famous.
Kony first came to prominence in 1986, as the leader of a Ugandan guerilla group that would eventually form the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). In 1988, the group became an important player in Ugandan affairs because many citizens were unsatisfied with other rebel groups. People joined Kony's movement as a form of rebellion, believing Kony could communicate with the Holy Spirit.
The bulk of the LRA, however, is made up of children forced to be soldiers. Kony stands accused of kidnapping thousands of children in northern Uganda and its neighboring countries, turning girls into sex slaves and boys into killers. Kony and his army often killed the families of the children, giving the children no other option but to fight for his cause: the Ten Commandments. His movement created a bloody nation for over 20 years, killing tens of thousands of people, burning their homes and mutilating their bodies.
The International Criminal Court has wanted Kony for war crimes since 2005.
During the Bush administration, the Pentagon sent a team of 17 counterterrorism advisers to train Ugandan troops to combat the LRA. The U.S. also provided millions of dollars worth of fuel trucks, satellite phones and night vision goggles to aid Uganda's army. Though these efforts scattered the LRA, it soon found sanctuary in neighboring countries.
In October 2011, President Obama deployed 100 armed military advisers to assist in the hunt for Kony.
Even so, Kony remained unknown to many people until March 5 when Invisible Children posted its video on YouTube. Within six days, the documentary spread like wildfire on Facebook and Twitter, attracting over 100 million views and making Kony a household name.
Social media, as the film's narrator proclaims, "are changing the way the world works."
"Kony 2012" is the most explosive viral video in history, according to Visible Measures, a blog about the analytics and advertising of social videos.
While the documentary raised awareness about the Ugandan warlord, it also backfired on Invisible Children.
Soon after the video's release, its muckraking focus was seen as misleading. For starters, Kony was driven out of Uganda six years ago and now has only a few hundred followers. He is no longer the danger he was a decade ago and Ugandan life has mostly returned to normal. Yet, the LRA is still causing harm, according to the United Nations.
Sure, all the fresh attention on Kony is a good thing.
But is it too late?
Perhaps.
The New York Times and other media outlets have covered the situation in Uganda and the LRA for over a decade.
Did anyone outraged by the lack of coverage surrounding Kony, his child soldiers and sex slaves bother to verify the information in the documentary or even Google the LRA?
Probably not.
Media illiteracy plagues our society. We are so willing to accept anything that evokes emotion as true.
Why?
With the depths of information the Internet provides, we have more chances than ever to examine all sides of a story before believing in it. But we don't.
In order to be functionally literate in our media-saturated society, people have to apply critical thinking skills to the messages the media are sending. Instead of viewing one source's portrayal as fact, it is important to seek alternative sources of information before jumping to conclusions.
In today's social media-based world, it is easier than ever for a message to be passed along without questioning the origin. Everyone is trying to share and sell his or her message. Just because millions of people post a message on the Internet does not give us the excuse not to ask: Who produced it and for what purpose? Who profits from the message? Who loses?
Finally, ask yourselves why you so quickly became an activist for Ugandan children after a tear-jerking documentary, but failed to do so for the child sex trafficking victims in Portland and Seattle, a problem right in front of you. And of course, there is the ever-present government massacre of its citizens in Syria.
Yet, no one seems to be a social media "activist" against either of these.
Read The New York Times, The Oregonian or any other news publication for that matter. Educate yourselves by reading all viewpoints on a topic, rather than accepting the first one you hear. You can make a difference in stopping injustices, but only if you've sifted through and analyzed the media's messages.
