Kony 2012 Sequel: Media and Foreign Policy

One of many anti-Kony posters. Source.

About a month ago, the Kony 2012 video went incredibly viral, and sparked American's interest in the LRA and efforts to stop them. But despite (or perhaps because of) the video's success, it prompted a lot of criticism. Recently, Invisible Children, the group behind Kony 2012, released a sequel called "KONY 2012: Part II - Beyond Famous."  The point was to address criticism and provide more information than the previous video. The video is still quite stylized, but feels much more like a documentary than the first. It has also failed to achieve the popularity of the first video. At the time of writing, the view count is under 1,150,000.

The video provides more details on the conflict - such as the fact that Kony's LRA currently only numbers about 250 fighters. While they present the video as more of an add-on to the first, it would seem that this information on the size of the LRA is more of a key fact than a bonus. In this video, unlike the first, they get into more of the details of the conflict, and make it clear than Kony is not actually in Uganda anymore - unlike in the first video, where it was somewhat unclear. They also mention a previous attempt at seizing Kony in 2007 that resulted in backlash against civilian populations - but rather than presented this as a possible con to trying to seize Kony, they mention it as if it supports their cause. Nevertheless, while the video tries to continue playing up Kony's evils and the importance of arresting him, it is far less convincing than the first video.

And the first video was very convincing to a lot of people. As a result of that video, the sequel boasts, the African Union has authorized a 5,000 person regional force track down Kony. And thanks to public pressure, two resolutions supporting the disarmament of Kony have been proposed in the House and Senate. It has been successful, no matter how many inaccuracies it may have contained. But if the people setting the agenda of Congress are informed by an over-simplified video, what does that mean for our foreign policy?

People have always been able to influence the priorities of the government through letter writing campaigns and other such measures. But as the influence of media expands, how will the people's influence on government grow? It is easier and easier to get informed about the records of one's representitives, and with many campaigns setting up pre-written emails, sending a message to them can take just a few clicks. But the amount of attention the media and public pay to a given issue is often not proportionate to its impact.

For example. the Kony 2012 Sequel says that since 2008, the LRA has killed over 2400 people. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the affected countries that the video focuses on. Well, in 2008, an estimated 45,000 people per month were dying in the DRC because of famine and disease. And other issues with conflict minerals plague the region. But people starving is much more expected, and much less glamorous than child soldiers. And so the efforts of Congress and the African Union are turned to the wild goose chase for Kony instead of trying to provide clean water or food to starving populations.

But it's not always true that famines avoid attention while killing gets it. During my Junior Theme research, I learned that in the 1990s for some months the famine in Somalia got more attention than killing in Bosnia and Serbia. So the type of tragedy does not always determine how much attention it will get. So who decides what will get attention? The media cover issues that the public cares about, because they're out to make money. The public cares about what they know about. So where does it all start?