In the News: Authors Speak Out About Kony 2012

KONY 2012 is a half-hour documentary, backed by Invisible Children, that’s tapping into the power of viral media to reach a global audience. It’s about Joseph Kony—a warlord in Uganda responsible for the enslavement of more than 30,000 children.

Since posting last week, the video has been viewed more than 70 million times–an astonishing number considering it is almost 30 minutes in length.

However, with all that visibility comes the inevitable criticism of Invisible Children. As with any movement, there are lessons to be learned (e.g., cause marketing, youth engagement, awareness, social media, ethical fundraising, etc.).

We’ve asked our authors to weigh in on the subject… we think you’ll be eager to hear what your peers are saying—and perhaps continue the conversation both here and elsewhere.

Author response:

“The transformative power of social technology proves there is no jungle dense enough to hide evil from those who wish to stop it. Whether used to fight horrendous atrocities or spark inspiring movements, social media erases the boundaries that once kept us separated from causes, change, and each other.”
Chad Norman, author of 101 Social media Tactics for Nonprofits

“The recent criticism of Invisible Children is a good reminder for all charities to have complete transparency with their donors, including corporate partners. There are plenty of comments circulating but I am most interested in hearing from the people that have supported the organization up to this point. Were they informed that their funds would not be used for direct services but for raising awareness? Did they understand the goals and objectives of the staff at IC and the budget needed to accomplish those goals? Not every charity is meant for every donor. It is the job of the development professionals to introduce giving opportunities and find people passionate about their cause to join them. Asking the right questions, having an intimate knowledge about the charity and the community it serves can lead to authentic campaigns that deliver results.”
Rachel Armbruster, author of Banding Together for a Cause

“The campaign concept and the video are not where the team at Invisible Children missed the mark — it was the follow-through that should have been done better/differently. If you a ssume that the audience will be motivated to learn more about this issue, then you have to help them access and make sense of the necessary information.  Invisible Children failed at that important task.  While there is information online about Joseph Kony, and more news coverage and blog-driven analysis of the issue being published each day, Invisible Children missed the opportunity to guide and shape the conversation beyond the most basic introductory level.”
Brian Reich, author of Shift & Reset. Visit Brian’s blog for more.

“The power of the Internet is showcased by efforts to make make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice. KONY 2012 is a film and benchmark campaign by Invisible Children that aims to draw the world’s attention and find justice for the innocents who have been harmed by Joseph Kony. I celebrate this effort!”
Ted Hart, author of Internet Management for Nonprofits

“I’ve been engaged in a conversation about this with my colleagues on my Facebook Page. Actually, I’ve worked closely with Invisible Children in the past and think that a lot of the back lash is not necessarily warranted although understandable. I’m planning on doing some blog posts on my website as well.”
Emily Davis, author of Fundraising and the Next Generation. Read more from Emily on her site.

“There are few things the establishment likes less than being told what to do. The media barons, policy makers and societal leaders like their privileged ivory towers, where they set the agenda and they decide what gets talked about. Unfortunately, globalisation and technology – the great levellers, have empowered the voice of the ordinary person to the point where it can now be heard by over 70 million people in less than a week. Where a naïve promise made to a simple child in Uganda can inspire more hearts and minds in a number of hours than policymakers have managed in decades. Sure, the media reported on Kony before last week. Sure, he was already on the wane before this video exploded. But I’d like to see Obama pull the US troops out of Uganda now. And while the people in power bicker at how an unknown has dictated the agenda (their agenda!), the rest of us can sleep a bit easier tonight knowing that the world will soon be a much better place. Because, as Bin Laden learnt to his peril, you can run from celebrity, but you can’t hide. Mission accomplished, I’d say.”
Jon Duschinsky, author of Philanthropy in a Flat World

“A lot of discussion around the strategy of the video and overall campaign has arisen too. For example, is trying to “make Kony famous” even the right strategy to raise awareness and generate action on the atrocities that are happening in the region? Why has it taken 26 years to make a video like this? And while the $700K video was well produced and edited, is this the type of large financial investment nonprofits should be making to generate attention around the issues they work on? If it is, the nonprofit community is in serious trouble because very few organizations could ever afford $700K to make a video. And even if they could raise the funds, it’s a huge gamble to take. It’s worrisome that some nonprofits will now think that slick videos with a high price tag will automatically go “viral.” It could not be further from the truth. Very few videos go viral to this extent no matter what budget is spent.”
Allyson Kapin, author of the forthcoming Social Change Anytime Everywhere, from her original post on Frogloop: Care2’s Nonprofit Marketing Blog

“The issue is complex. The KONY video simplified it, but left out important facts. Is that responsible social change?  For responsible social change, you need transparency. As my colleague, Shonali Burke, pointed out there was a lack of it in the film.  For example, it  does not make the timeline/dates very clear – it mixes recent and older footage without date stamps…KD Paine and I just submitted our final manuscript for “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit” edited by the fabulous Bill Paarlberg where we devoted a chapter to the practice of transparency and learning in public and how to measure it. We looked at the dimensions of transparency which include:  accountability, disclosure, participation, and absence of secrecy and how to measure that. The last quality is relevant to this Kony Kerfuffle – absence of secrecy is when an organization doesn’t leave out important but potentially damaging (to its campaign) details or confuse the facts.  For a nonprofit to be transparent means that it is open, accountable, and honest with its stakeholders and the public.”
Beth Kanter, author of The Networked Nonprofit and the forthcoming Measuring the Networked Nonprofit, from her original blog post on Beth’s Blog

The complex interface between the first and third worlds has always been fraught with misunderstanding. (I am well acquainted with this, as I lived in Uganda for a couple years while in high school, and nowadays take my family to live in an almost-as-distant culture each year for a month.) I do hope that Invisible Children does good for Uganda, but it is tempting to see them as just another in a long, long line of awkward efforts of Us to help Them…But the point here is that measuring the effectiveness of social media is not always as easy as counting video views, or even donations. Thanks to the power of social media (tweets from Rihanna and Ryan Seacrest!) Invisible Children now has a pile of money, yet it appears they have misrepresented their mission. How can or should social media measurement for nonprofits take that into account?
Bill Paarlberg, editor of the forthcoming book, Measuring the Networked Nonprofit, from his original blog post on The Measurement Standard

What do you think? What lessons should we learn from this campaign? Let us know what you think in the comments.