Weaponized Media

    You've all seen the Kony video by now, I'm sure. You've also heard all the arguments for and against it, so I'll leave decision to praise or criticize up to you. You're a smart person, you can do your own research, and I'd highly encourage that you do, because as soon as you watched that video, read that article, or checked all your friends' updates on facebook/twitter, you became part of an 'experiment'. It might do us all a bit of good to step back and look at what exactly this experiment is before we start jumping on any trains, be they for or against the cause.

What we have here is a cohesive and well aimed movement to draw attention to a cause; invisible children. But what's that you say? the facts are distorted? IC is a scam? Kony isn't the real bad-guy? Doesn't matter. The video could've been about refugees instead of kids, or animal cruelty, or even bird-food shortages in Central Park. What I mean is that the content of the video wasn't as important as the the presentation of it all.

In an interview with Jedediah Jenkins, one of the creators of the film, he says:

"...the reality is we would work so hard, and make all these videos, and pour so much effort into them, and they would get 3,000 views. But then a video with a cat flushing a toilet gets 40 million views. That left us going, "What are we doing wrong?" .... our goal was to make a movie you could watch online, that’s entertaining, and that tells the story in a digestible way. And we had no idea how hungry the global audience was for that. "

The cause never changed in all the years they worked on it. What did change is the medium, the nature of video that they put out. They intentionally made it a tear-jerker, the kind of emotive video we all forward to our friends and post on our blogs. They spent time and money designing it to be viral. However, there are plenty of videos that get millions more views and illicit no response. The important thing they did was to accompany this with a specific hook to take people's clicks and likes, and turn them into a political and physical force. They pointed people at their representatives, and made it possible to send a message with the click of a button, be it liking their facebook page or sending an email. They stream-lined donation, made a kit  for people who did, and did their best to make the kit viral with the "cover the night" event. They made taking action in the cause as easy and fashionable as possible, and it worked. Whether or not you looked into the facts and decided to support or decry them for frauds, you are participating in exactly the discussion they wanted you to. Every mention of the campaign makes it more of a success, because the nature of  click-activism is that as long as it's been discussed, good or bad, that discussion keeps it at the top of the web and on everybody's newsfeed. The Kony campaign is a prime example of how well designed media can turn the zeitgeist into a tool. It's been a success so far, and I expect to see it reduplicated in the near future, for everything from political campaigns to marketing. Politicians and the like already 'link in' to twitter, facebook, tumblr, you name it. However, this kind of mass promotion and media designed to be viral is going to become a trend. The future of advertising is here, and it is us- or at least our status updates.