This article looks at how news media plays a role in shaping and influencing public opinions and how social movements are able to influence social change. Andrews and Caren also ask why some social movement organisations are more successful than others at gaining media coverage, and what organisational, tactical and issue characteristics enhance media attention.

I think that this article relates well to Christopher Meyer's blog post, Modern Heroics: The Story of Kony 2012, because he talks about the notion of 'change' as a strategy for inducing collaboration, while Andrews and Caren explore how the collaboration becomes successful through media attention (Andrews & Caren, 20p. 842).

The Kony 2012 video, created by Jason Russel, was launched on a Web 2.0 self-publishing platform called Vimeo, and from there has spread through a variety of channels, including television, the Internet, radio, and movement-generated sources. Meyer's observes that while the video started on an outside media flow, because of Russel's strategic elements, it soon overflowed into mainstream media channels. Andrews and Caren continue the information spreading processes by saying that mainstream media (as the gatekeeper) allows the public sphere "an amount of visibility" to the Kony 2012 video and by doing so "increased it's potential to diffuse" which has enabled global distribution and status (Andrews & Caren, 20p. 842).

Once Kony 2012 was given major media coverage, it gained major media attention. Media institutions are not neutral channels; they are shaped by "organisational, economic, political, social, and cultural forces that influence their practices" (Andrews & Caren, 20p. 843). Due to these issues, the influence and shaping of public opinion, in relation to Kony 2012, is a complicated and biased equation but Andrews, Caren, or Meyers can all conclude that such successful media attention means that campaigns social movement was able to generate thoughts about social change.

References

Andrews, Kenneth & Caren, Neal. (2010). Making the News: Movement Organisations,
Media Attention, and the Public Agenda. American Sociology Association, 75(6), 841
866. Retrieved March 31, 2012, from ProQuest Database

Meyer, C. (2012). Modern Heroics: The Story of Kony 2012. Working Wider Blog. Retrieved
from http://www.workingwider.com/strategic_innovation/modern-heroics-the-story-
of-kony-2012/

Yang, G. (2009). Online Activism. Journal of Democracy, 20, 33-35. Retrieved from http://muse.jhu.edu.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/journals/journal_of_democracy/v020/20.3.yang.html

Online Activism by Guobin Yang


This article discusses online activism that occurs on the internet in China; the power of the Chinese people and how they have used online activism as a force of social change. Yang isolates the elements that allow for specific conditions in which organised activism occurs and identifies the four key types of online activism.

Cultural, social, political, and nationalistic activisms are all types of active sub-crowds found on the platforms that operate from within the "great firewall of China". He states that while all four forms of activism can be classified under 'political' he singles it out because it's focus on "human rights, political reform, and other issues that touch directly on how China is governed, by whom, and on what basis" (Yang, 2009, pp. 33).

In a country where so much is controlled and censored by the government, it is encouraging to know that active crowds are alive and thriving within private forums, anonymous chartrooms, and using complex Chinese characters to beat the filtering systems in open discussion boards. Through such outlets social activists can discuss and organise meeting points and ultimately plan the next step in their plans for challenging the government.
What makes this particular article interesting is how the power of the crowds affects the Chinese government. As a force for social change, the power of the crowds has changed the behaviour of the state by "undermining information control and creating social pressure for more government transparency"; the result has led to online policy changes (Yang, 2009, pp. 36). Although this organised online activism isn't enough to overthrow the government, it is an essential step towards changing it.

The Kony 2012 campaign can be applied to the situation of active audiences in China. What was once a localised issue is now a global issue because of one organisation, a single video, and the harnessed power of the audience. The viral video's mass-consumption across platforms has allowed it to surpass international censorship and in doing so has undermined the Ugandan government and the International Criminal Court. This video has created global wide social pressure on the Ugandan government, the United States Government, and the International Criminal Court to take action in regards to Joseph Kony and Rebel army.

Although it is too soon to tell the long term effect of the Kony 2012 campaign, audience actions online are starting to force changes in countries around the world. People now know the name Joseph Kony.

Meyer, C. (2012). Modern Heroics: The Story of Kony 2012. Working Wider Blog. Retrieved from http://www.workingwider.com/strategic_innovation/modern-heroics-the-story- of-kony-2012/

Modern Heroics: The Story of Kony 2012 by Christopher Meyer

This is a blog post from academic Christopher Meyer, about the collaborative strategies of the Kony 2012 campaign. He focuses on the elements of the Kony 2012 video, deconstructs the 'anatomy of heroics' that the film possesses, and how Jason Russell uses the notion of 'change' as a strategy for inducing collaboration.

The Invisible Children organisation launched its Kony 2012 video from the platform Vimeo, on 20 February 2012, and since its release has received 17.6 million plays (Invisible Children, 2012). Russell uses his video to get a reaction from audiences by increasing awareness, building pressure for change, and demonstrating credibility through proven success (Meyer, 2012). After only 34 days online, Kony 2012 became one of the most viewed videos in a short period of time, in the history of the internet (Rainie, 2012). The amount of exposure the video received online reinforces how Russell's careful use of selective elements in the video reflects the notion of change and thus is a successful strategy for collaboration.

Meyer at the time he wrote his blog entry, 9 March 2012, noted that the Invisible Children organisation had '2.5 millions likes'. I checked their Facebook page on 24 Mach 2012, and it has grown to 3.1 million.




(Kony Facebook, 2012)
This increase of 24% in just 15 days shows the persuasive nature of Russell's film and how it successfully uses the notion of 'change' as a strategy for inducing collaboration.

____

Invisible Children. (2012). Kony 2012. Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/37119711

Facebook. (2012) Kony Facebook [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/invisiblechildren

Meyer, C. (2012). Modern Heroics: The Story of Kony 2012. Working Wider Blog. Retrieved from http://www.workingwider.com/strategic_innovation/modern-heroics-the-story-of-kony-2012/

Rainie, L. (2012). The Viral Kony 2012 Video. Pew Internet. Retrieved from http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Kony-2012-Video.aspx

Surowiecki, J. (2004). The Wisdom of the Crowds. United States. Doubleday; Anchor. (http://www.icepredict.com/rsrc/files/wisdomofcrowds.pdf)

Wisdom of the Crowds by James Surowiecki


This article explores how collaboration occurs through crowd wisdom, identifies specifically what makes a good 'wise crowd' or a bad 'wise crowd', and importantly pin points how disorganised decisions are more accurate in a group situation than an organised decision.

Surowiecki highlights the important difference between the Wisdom of the Crowds concept (p5), in which people must be unrelated, independent, and have diversity of mind from one another to form opinions, to a groupthink situation in which people "increasingly make decisions based on influence of one another".

The recent Kony 2012 campaign created by the Invisible Children relied entirely on the collaboration culture to spread information and raise awareness of the issue of Joseph Kony and his criminal actions. The combined audience has given power to crowds allowing mass self-expression through collaboration on social platforms, as individuals engage with the campaign and create content in relation to raised issues.
Audiences have had either one of two reactions to the campaign: positive or negative. Due to the nature of social networks such as Facebook, one of the major platforms that aided the rise of the Kony 2012 campaign, what information each user consumes is mediated by other users. Individuals on Facebook who have 'friends' often know one another and have a similar frame of mind which leads to organised and influenced decisions. These decisions are deemed less accurate by Surowiecki who categorises this audience as a bad example of a wise crowd.

To date, the Kony 2012 campaign has attained a favourable and collective biased opinion; one that has been formulated and circulated via online social networking sites. Information circulated online about Kony 2012 is remediated by individuals who place their own opinions into the campaign.