Student Opinion | Do Social Media Campaigns Like Kony 2012 Stunt or Stimulate Real Change?

Many of my students have come up to me in the last couple of weeks, wanting to know if I knew about Kony. Well, if you haven’t seen the video, you should.

Here’s the student opinion question:

Students: Tell us what you think about campaigns like Kony 2012. Have you seen the video? If so, how did it come to your attention, and did you find it compelling? Why do you think it got so much attention? What do you make of the arguments made in Room for Debate? What is the value of raising awareness? Is doing so desirable and effective, or does it oversimplify complex issues and mislead the public about how real change is made? Do campaigns like these make you more or less likely to delve deeper into issues and take social action?

via Student Opinion | Do Social Media Campaigns Like Kony 2012 Stunt or Stimulate Real Change? – NYTimes.com.

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19 Responses to Student Opinion | Do Social Media Campaigns Like Kony 2012 Stunt or Stimulate Real Change?

  1. Latrell L. says:

    The media campaigns about Kony 2012 are pretty much all over the Internet. But let’s be real here. What more is it doing than making people aware of Kony? Posting tons of campaigns isn’t going to make the army capture Kony any faster. If America wants to stimulate real change, then we should make an effort to actually save the children in Uganda from Kony. If we worked twice as hard as we did to catch Osama, then the Kony will be stopped. This is the only way in my opinion to stimulate real change.

    • Mindy M says:

      I totally agree! I think people should be aware that not all the money they donate goes to the people in need. Some goes to people that don’t even need it.

  2. Mindy says:

    Kony is a very bad person. I haven’t even realize that its been going on for years until I saw it on Twitter. I do, think that everyone is aware of Kony through a social website, but I don’t think that it is going to help. Sure, a few people might go to Africa and help, but there are thousands of kids needing help. We ALL need to go help.

  3. george roos says:

    I agree that social websites is helping to get the word out of kony, that’s how I found out about him. But I don’t think it is going to do much of anything to stop him. Maybe only one percent of the people who hear about it try to do anything about it by donating or something. So I guess I would say it is very slightly effective using social networks to get the word out.

  4. Houston M. says:

    http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/do-social-media-campaigns-like-kony-2012-stunt-or-stimulate-real-change/comment-page-4/?apage=9#comment-531625

    I completely agree with this. It does nothing if everyone talks about Kony. People have to actually take action to get something done. I agree that it stunts actual change.

  5. Mayra M. says:

    http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/do-social-media-campaigns-like-kony-2012-stunt-or-stimulate-real-change/comment-page-5/?apage=9#comment-533487

    I agree,just because we live in a small city where not a lot of things happen doesn’t mean we can’t go out and help get him noticed. I also want a “cover the night” to happen here. I want to help the kids because what he does is wrong. I want him to be caught.

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