Invisible Children brought worldwide attention to Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army with a wildly popular documentary called “Kony 2012.” The 30-minute film depicted Kony’s violent militia in Central Africa. It currently has more than 87 million views on YouTube.
The film’s success raised awareness about Kony and also inspired both positive and negative critiques of Invisible Children, a San Diego-based advocacy group that began its work in Uganda in 2005. Today the organization and its Washington, D.C., partner Resolve are preparing an advocacy event on April 20.
This week Adam Finck, Invisible Children’s director of programs in Central Africa, and Michael Poffenberger, co-founder and executive director of Resolve, visited Heritage to talk about the film and the situation in Central Africa.
Listen to the interview about Kony 2012 on this week’s Scribecast
The increased attention on Kony has prompted action in Congress and across the globe. Heritage’s James Jay Carafano, author of “Wiki at War,” called it an example of how social media shapes the debate:
The fate of Kony and his pursuers aside, the incident is another reminder that social networking can be a powerful force to influence everything from the boardroom to the battlefield. When it comes to dealing with the Internet, our government needs to be cyber serious.
Finck and Poffenberger would certainly agree. They hope the sequel to “Kony 2012,” released on April 5, helps drive more attention and brings an end to the Lord’s Resistance Army.
The podcast runs about nine minutes. It was produced with the help of Hannah Sternberg. Listen to previous interviews on Scribecast or subscribe to future episodes.
Yes, social networking on the Internet can be very powerful, especially when leveraged with deceit. I suspect many of Invisible Children's followers might not be fully comfortable with IC's extensive social and institutional ties to The Fellowship or its involvement, explicitly as a Christian ministry, in the Barnabas Group.
There's of course nothing wrong with evangelizing – but the ethic one derives from Jesus' words in the New Testament is an ethic of honesty and transparency, not stealth and subterfuge.
This may or may not be a real problem (I don't know), but all I know is that this whole "campaign" seems like a scam to me. The main guy behind the video, and his cutesy little kid who helps to sway people to support his campaign is most likely profiting off the whole thing bigtime. Does anyone know what sort of house he lives in, or what sort of car(s) he drives?
I think the whole Kony movement is a complete scam. Kony hasn't even been in Uganda for six years.. not to mention the fact that the men leading the movement are making 90k a year. I think it's ridiculous. Buying a bracelet or donating money isn't going to solve anything.