Charlie Mayfield UWSMC May 10,

 The rapid distribution of social media which expands exponentially, mimicking the spread of a computer virus or viral disease epidemic….. 2

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 LRA – “Lord’s Resistance Army” – formed 1986  Murder, sexual slavery, child abuse, child-soldiers  Since 1986, reportedly killed 70,000 civilians & kidnapped 75,000 children in 4 countries  2M refugees flee violence 4

 Lord’s Resistance Army has NO stated aims or goals, other than to perpetuate itself and its power through inhumane terrorism 5

 Kony & the LRA left Uganda in 2006  Currently thought to be somewhere in South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, or the Central African Republic 6

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 San Diego based non-profit headed by Jason Russell started in 2004  Seeks to Have Kony arrested and tried for crimes against humanity Stop LRA brutal & inhumane practices of:  Murder, rape, attack and destruction of towns & villages  Abducting and abusing children  Forcing children to become LRA soldiers 8

 Create social & political awareness Produce & present films & videos to high schools and colleges throughout the US  Produced April 2007 “Displace Me” event 67,000 US activists slept in the streets in “cardboard villages” to raise awareness of Ugandan refugees fleeing the LRA 9

 President Obama signs “Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act”  Commits funds and Special Forces support to find & arrest Kony and pledges to “support the people northern Uganda” 10

 Invisible Children launches new website and video  Intent was to Raise awareness of Kony situation Increase public pressure to capture Kony Donate to the cause 11

 Video & website showed 20 celebrities and 12 politicians as supporters  Viewers asked to select celebs and politicos and send them scripted Tweets to support the cause Celebs & politicos then Tweeted to their audiences to support the cause and watch the video  Facebook pages also featured many shared links and comments 12

Celebrities George Clooney Bono Oprah Rihanna Tim Tebow Angelina Jolie Jay-Z Ellen DeGeneres Bill O’Reilly Taylor Swift Bill Gates & 9 more Politicians Bill Clinton George Bush Mitt Romney Condeliza Rice John Boehner John Kerry & 6 more 13

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 Oprah 11.2M Followers Oprah : “Thanks tweeps for sending me info about ending #LRAviolence. I am aware. Have supported with $’s and voice and will not stop. #KONY2012.”  Rihanna: 18.5M Followers Rihanna “ #KONY2012 Spread the word!!! PLEASE go to Invisiblechildren.com Even if its 10 minutes… Trust me, you NEED to know about this! #1LOVE” 15

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 100M views worldwide in 6 days!!!!  Became the fastest growing on-line video of all time!  Viral spread primarily due to year olds sharing links on Twitter and Facebook (Pew Research

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Invisible Children over-simplified and misrepresented the situation Less than 1/3 of donations actually going to aid Uganda people Many other human tragedies occurring throughout the world that need help & support  Who needs help the most?  Where can help do the most good? Awareness raising by itself is useless to effect change 19

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 Ran around San Diego naked & incoherent  Destroyed campaign’s credibility and shifted its focus…. 21

 April 20 “Cover the Night” event was poorly supported in US and worldwide Supporters were asked to  “Cover The Night” with banners, posters, fliers, chalk art, and other visual materials  Stage rallies  “Kony Part II – Beyond Famous” video had fraction of “Kony 2012” views 2M vs 100M+ 22

 Viral campaign created broad awareness Made Kony a bad-guy celebrity But ….  Failed to activate audience beyond spreading the message  Awareness did not lead to action  Too many steps from “raise awareness…” to “find & arrest Kony” 23

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Over 12M Twitter mentions on 9 tags in March, less the 500,000 in April 27

 “Slacker” + “Activism” = “Slacktivism”  Film said to inherently promote “Slacktivism” – creation of feel good measures for a social cause, such as sharing digital content, but not taking any real action to implement change 28

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