
KONY 2012: Part II – Beyond Famous
Kony 2012: Part II – Beyond Famous has been released. DocumentaryStorm is the first to bring you the official response from the creators of the documentary and campaign. Controversial. A few weeks ago, DocumentaryStorm was among the first to bring you Kony 2012, the campaign documentary to bring Joseph Kony to justice. The documentary proved controversial. The organization behind the video was put into question. The war was two decades old, yet this was subtly ignored. Kony is no longer in Uganda. Footage used in the documentary was taken from other African countries.
We made sure to bring you balanced reporting. Updates were posted, with many articles questioning the validity of the directors’ claims.
Kony 2012 has become one of the most popular documentary films to circulate the internet in 2012.
BEYOND FAMOUS is the official response to the criticism.
This is a tactical film. They know that the movement depends on the emotional enthusiasm of naive teenagers, and they know that that sort of group hysteria is transitory and fickle. They are struggling to keep up the momentum, to stop the sentimental energy from draining away or being rediredted. After all, its nearly festival season. It’ll fizzle out.
Once again, American Propaganda at its …umm…”finest”. Of course, (as Steven said) naive little teenagers will follow this since this is now the new “fad” that they can be involved with for the whole of a day or so that their attention span allows. Coming from Communist Deutschland, I grew up with propaganda. The way that this is streaming it o@ut is just humorous. So many easy solutions to this problem that no one will step up and take/do. Loved to see how they filmed all of the House, Cabinet, Parliment etc “talking” about this issue…when in reality, they took the 2 minutes or so that this topic does get brought up in politics and make it seem like everyone wants to change this. Save the fad for the naive, witty masses that are the sheep to the slaughter. The strong will survive and conquer.
That was incredible, and should be quoted for years to come. True words.
This is some of the worst propaganda Ive ever seen! The whole concept of Kony 2012 is nothing but a huge load of B**lSh*t that should NOT be paid attention to for any reason. Is there a problem in the Congo and the rest of Northern Africa? Yes of course, but what about the Rwandan issue that we just turned our backs on in the mid-90’s? 800,000 people killed in 3 months! The UN did nothing then and they could have, because they knew it was coming!! This Kony crap fills me with disgust and rage that anyone would thing that a grass roots movement online could do what no one else has been able too!! Righteous indignation!! Disgust!!
This doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Like Steven said, they’re just trying to squeeze what little is left from the original buzz and this will fade in just a few days.
Yes, all bull propaganda; But Thx DocuStorm, so I could see how faken far this one’s going……..WOW….^V^!
I dont get the hostily towards people trying to help this situation. Where does the idea that all this is bogus come from.
Is Kony a problem or not? Does he maybe not exist?
Are the child soldiers lying – or do they not really exist?
Sure a movement like this may be a bit naive but creating awareness does sometimes have an impact on the political will to do something – this is the modern day petition, is it not?
They may be misguided in their approach, I dont know enough about the details of this issue to say anything more than that, but their intent is good or is it not?
The main objection (for me) is the idea of slick marketing “spin” tactics being aimed at naive young people to persuade them (manipulate them) emotionally. We should value, rather, media that seeeks tor EDUCATE people in a mature, detached way.
As for your questions: no, Kony is not a “problem”, he’s a part of reality that you don’t like; yes, he exists; yes, he uses child soldiers.
I reject the idea that this creates awareness; it really aims at motivating, creating emotional enthusiasm. And policy should not be made or influenced or pressured in that way. If people are not mature enough to absorb serious media, I don’t think they should be fed MTV style motivational promos.
I agree with you Bruce, regardless of how this film presents itself it still presents an issue many people never knew or care about before. Everything is overly criticized nowadays where is is nearly impossible to establish a movement of any sort. It really doesn’t matter how legit or biased the story is anymore it will get bashed and nullified. It really has become a spamfest. Not to say some commentators aren’t insightful, in fact many are, but it gets swallowed up in a sea of spam. I think the Internet has had an unexpected outcome where it has prevented many important topics from being discussed seriously. It’s too easy to dismiss issues like Kony as a writeoff nobody should care about. What has really happened is the world has become a monitory society. Everything is judged and criticized so harshly that the only way messages can truely stand out are messages like the Kony2012 video. SOPA was bought about in the same manner through the use of Youtube video awareness. I think why the SOPA movement succeeded was because it could be criticized, which is what the Internet has become a great platform for.
It’s true that only slick marketed messages like Kony2012 can stand out, but that’s a function of democracy plus mass media – emotional appeals to the lowest common denominator will always be favoured in that kind of society. The idea that too much criticism is the problem seems wrong; detached, informed criticism can only contribute to better understanding.
I think you are being a bit too harsh when you say it appeals to the lowest common denominator. I think most people can understand the Kony2012 message even if they don’t know all the exact details. It brings awareness to those that want to learn more about the movement where otherwise they would not have cared. It really is just that, an open door, where people can investigate the matter more or support the cause. It’s not like Invisible Children hasn’t been transparent about what they do – they did a commendable job answering their critics and released there financial budget on their site.
Yes, I completely agree with you that informed criticism can advance discussion and accountability. However, you have to admit most criticism on public forums don’t amount to anything more than users trolling. People are partisan and only tend to post to promote their own ideology regardless of whether they are an expert or not (Usually it is the latter). Rarely, do you ever see a post that really do add to the discussion and understanding. This in effect can nullify legitimate causes. It takes a great deal more time and effort to come up with a well-thought out answers, than it is to spew nonsense.
If it’s not appealing to the lowest common denominator, why is the appeal emotional and propagandistic rather than detached and rational? If the purpose is to inform – likewise. When you address an intelligent audience with informative intent, you don’t produce an
emotionally manipulative marketing promo. But I think it’s dead and forgotten now anyway.
For everyone’s benefit it may be a god idea to present a balanced view. Have a look at the Guardians (UK paper) report.
Instead of slamming it as US propoganda, its more interesting to understand the nature of the organisation that is Invisible Children and how they opperate.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/reality-check-with-polly-curtis/2012/mar/08/kony-2012-what-s-the-story
Just like its not a good idea to mindlessly believe internet documentaries, its equally not a good idea to just believe feedback comments.
This is still an issue, but in the Congo and Sudan more so than in Northern Uganda. The real issue is that the organisation behind Invisible Children is a little too professional and is therefore a little suspect. Also its recommendations are questioned.
mmm, lets drink coffee and tea from east africa while children there starve to death…. mmmm
and get kony he is bad!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olVADbv7Wts
king leopold of belgium did this and they have statues erected in the center of cities of this man. he is a great king and Kony is the oppsite….
lol…Dude gets arrested for j*rkin off in public…Serious, that’s literally all i need to know about this “organization”