The Power of Social Media Assignment

1.) Propaganda is the manipulation of public opinion. It is generally carried out through media that is capable of reaching a large amount of people and effectively persuading them for or against a cause. I think that this video was propaganda because Jason Russel tried to persuade his audience (the people watching the Kony 2012 video) in believing that Kony was a horrible human being that abducts kids and manipulate them. I learned that if you have a great cause, then anything is possible. Jason Russel set his mind to something and persued it. Even though he didn't stop Kony, hundreds of thousands of people all shared the same belief and tried to stop him.

2.) I believe that this video and message can be trusted because they had secondary information - Jacob. They also got Obama to respond back to them and he sent out troops to try and catch Kony.

3.) I do not have a biased opinion on the "Invisible Children's" charity because they made a very positive change in the World because everyone had the same opinion on Kony, so they all tried to stop him which had a big affect on the world, but the charity could also be using the money to fund things for themselves like the electricity bills at their houses or gas for their cars.

4.) The key criticisms include: a.) It overly simplifies a complicated situation. b.) It does not include the people of northern Uganda themselves c.) It advocates a disempowering approach.

5.) Yes, I would have to somewhat agree with the critics.

6.) Social media can have a very powering affect on people, but the feedback from people may be positive or negative. It is a good way to get the message across because videos can go viral in a matter of minutes.

7.) The world has changed in a negative way since Facebook, Twitter, Youtube had been created because so much hate, racism, discrimination etc. is going on now because it is a lot easier to say something to someone over the internet because you can’t see their reactions behind the screen. However, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube etc. are not entirely bad. For example: If you have friends over seas, you could talk to them via Facebook.

8.) The article quoted, "Jason Russell, co-founder of the nonprofit Invisible Children, went to a psychiatric hospital after he was arrested for traipsing, naked, down a San Diego street."

9.) This teaches us that social media can be so powerful that it can make people go insane, literally. Not all media is bad, but not all of it is good either and before you upload something on the internet you should think twice about it because anyone could have negative or positive feedback.

10.) Just like I said above, everyone could have negative or positive feedback depending on what you upload to the internet. You shouldn't post anything that you may regret in the future because videos can go viral and once they're out there, there's really no way of getting it back.