Online activism....do we know what we're doing?

I was bombarded by an influx of videos on my Facebook page entitled "Kony 2012", accompanied by people;s personal messages such as "Kony must be stopped" or "spread this video", the headlines did captivare me, and i did partake in viewing the entire video, my perception of the content of the video however is quite contrary to what everyone else is suggesting.

Kony 2012 is a campaign put together by Invisible Children, a social activism organization that seeks to bring peace and stability to Uganda. They released a film in 2004 and just recently began this new campaign designed to destroy one of the worst criminals in the world. Wikipedia offers some useful background.

After the film, Invisible Children Inc initiated a successful campaign, petitioning the United States Government for support. Invisible Children Inc in 2012 started a social media campaign to garner support and awareness of the LRA and Joseph Kony. The campaign focuses on the website that features a roughly 30-minute video and sharing tools, and a plan for encouraging activism and bringing public awareness for the end goal of capturing Kony in 2012. The 30-minute video was uploaded to YouTube on March 5, 2012 and went viral immediately. After three days, the video received over 38 million hits on YouTube. As part of the campaign, 20 celebrity “culturemakers” and 12 "policymakers" were targeted as individuals to pressure to publicize the campaign. Among those targeted were Mark Zuckerberg, Lady GaGa, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, and Harry Reid. The singer Rihanna has tweeted about the issue.

This is a campaign designed to take advantage of the power of social media. What’s more, it is working to perfection, at least when it comes to the way it is spreading. There are several terms related to this campaign that are trending on Twitter and the YouTube video has almost 53 million views so far, quickly making it one of their most popular videos of all time. It is all over Facebook and now all over the mainstream media as well.

Social media campaigns tend to be dependent on one thing more than any other: speed. Do not think about it, just do it! Don’t get the facts, don’t wait a few days to consider it, don’t ask someone who knows more — just click Tweet or Share or Post or whatever else it is that will spread the word. We’re all in this together, we need your vote, we need it now! Go! Go! Go!

I think as a population consuming social media, we need to be responsible for what we allow ourselves to filter in and how we analyze these messages both denotatively and conotatively.

The expense of truth in Trinidad and Tobago

Instances of journalists being raided and investigated by authorities and media houses being under constant threat from officers are very contrasting images in which Trinidad and Tobago's freedom of press reputation is being questioned. As citizens, we attribute a degree of trust and faith in the media to broadcast and highlight the democracy our nation, however it is unfortunate to witness the extent to which media entities are being bullied by police officers and those in authority. The manner in which journalist are treated is not only unfortunate but also appalling,  the intimidation used by the police to media entities and representatives is very disrespectful.

With respect to a search exercise for a tape from a crime watch show and the incident with the journalist and their involvement in the integrity commission, we can observe a pattern in which the police seem to demonstrate such aggressive force towards situations which does not render them to do so. The phenomenon in which journalist are mistreated seem to be not only a local occurrence but an international one too, currently Libyan militia has detained two British Journalists accused of spying. It is also reported that the men entered the country illegally and were carrying incriminating evidence. is there a problem with citizen acquiring the truth and knowledge we are entitled too? Are we still under some form of subjugation in which freedom of press has become " freedom of press to an extent", the attitude of the authorities towards journalist leave only suspicion on their part since we are always left wonder what is it they are trying to withhold and prevent the public from knowing.

Maybe if as citizens we were to ask the question "why" more often rather than sit nonchalantly  by while we are "under a state of emergency" or having media houses raided for "tapes of a show" we may be able to lobby for better responses, not only do i think that the laws and constitution are there to protect journalist, but as citizens we can do our part to provide support and sanctuary for the presenters of democracy in our country!