Back in 1968 at the Democratic Party Convention, the Chicago police gained widespread infamy by wading with unnecessary and gratuitous brutality into a crowd of radical demonstrators outside the conference centre, under the gaze of the tv cameras. A recording of the crowd’s chants of “The Whole World’s Watching” was soon used on an album of the much under-rated rock band Chicago.
Of course the whole world wasn’t watching. Quite a few people in the United States and western Europe were, but most of the world saw nothing at all, or a carefully edited version to suit the political motives of their authoritarian governments.
Nowadays, the internet has brought the concept of a truly global campaign much closer. Every day more and more people gain access to the internet and, filtering by Chinese and other governments notwithstanding, they have more and more freedom to roam at will and watch what takes their fancy.
Which is another way of saying that more and more people are exposed to the slick marketing campaigns of clever activists. And none has been more successful than Kony 2012, a 30-minute video fronted by Californian Jason Russell about a brutal rebel movement in East and Central Africa.
Seventy million people – more than one percent of the world’s population – supposedly watched the video, or part of it, in the first week as it went “viral” on YouTube. In 30 minutes it did what billions of dollars, two armies, US military advisers, several books, the churches, a phalanx of NGOs and several governments had failed to do – to turn rebel leader Joseph Kony into a global hate figure.
Leaving aside the question of whether problems like this rebellion are really solvable by an outbreak of worldwide enthusiasm, the success of the video has exposed some of the difficulties of campaigns of this type. The film is undoubtedly slick: beautifully shot and edited, tight headshots, short soundbites, it has all the panache and brilliance of California media at its best.
But not everyone will feel that the cutesie footage of Russell’s adorable blonde young son is the best way to publicise atrocities in the heart of Africa, or that wristbands and posters do justice to the tribal and social complexities.
So while the video’s viewing numbers are huge, it has also attracted a veritable gale of criticism. It has been called naïve, misleading and patronising; commentators and a kaleidoscope of activist organisations have queued up to pick holes in it.
The campaign is aimed overwhelmingly at the US government, pushing it to intervene more forcefully to bring Kony, to justice. And that is where the problem lies. If it were only distributed in California, it would probably chime with the local culture. It is hip, populist and empowering.
But the internet knows no boundaries and campaigning is done differently in different parts of the world; California-style activism can have a negative effect elsewhere, however well-intentioned. It is a lesson for all communicators: the internet is global, not local; your messages need to be too.
Oliver Wates, MediaTrain consultant
mediatrain 