Kony 2012 Rhetorical Analysis

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The Power of Rhetoric: Kony 2012 The year is 2012. "Gangnam Style" is playing through every school. "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" is streaming on repeat on TLC. Katniss Everdeen is quickly becoming every teen's idol. Yet, while all the ignorant Americans enjoy their mindless entertainment, in Africa, Joseph Kony is kidnapping thousands of young children and forcing them to murder their own parents and become soldiers in a cause they want to have no part in. On March 5, 2012, a video was released by a non-profit charity called Invisible Children (IC). This video soon gained international attention as millions began to share it. Titled "Kony 2012," the video focused on bringing attention to a warlord named Joseph Kony. In the video, Kony is accused…show more content…
Six days after the release of the video, IC received over 100 million views. These numbers set the record for the most viewed video until Psy released his music video, “Gangnam Style,” on July 15, 2012. Using nearly every easy pathos tool one could put in a thirty-minute video, IC was able to obtain these numbers by manipulating the minds of users on blooming social medias. Soft, melancholy music in the intro, rabbit-hole statements such as “it is up to us to change the course of human history,” and “if this happened in just one night in America…”, even using the story of a Ugandan escaped child soldier repeatedly preferring death than war through tears in his eyes until IC’s founder and the video’s narrator, Jason Russell, promised to stop Joseph Kony, the video entrapped the audience’s attention. By oversimplifying the actual situation in Uganda and by providing overly easy ways of participation in the effort, the audience almost feels guilty if they don’t press share or purchase a bracelet or “action kit” from…show more content…
Lessons of Kony 2012. 16 September 2016. 7 March 2018. (-- removed HTML --) . Craine, Anthony G. Joseph Kony. 31 January 2017. 9 March 2018. (-- removed HTML --) . Goyette, Braden. Google reveals top U.S. searches for 2012. 12 December 2012. 10 March 2018. (-- removed HTML --) . Invisible Children. KONY 2012. 5 March 2012. YouTube video. 10 March 2018. —. KONY 2012. 2012. 9 March 2018. (-- removed HTML --) . Journeyman Pictures. An Extremely Rare Interview with Joseph Kony (2006). 6 December 2016. YouTube video. 16 March 2018. (-- removed HTML --) . Siviter, Neil. Whatever Happened to Kony? n.d. 10 March 2018. (-- removed HTML --) . Truthloader. Joseph Kony 2012: What happened to Invisible Children? - Truthloader. 5 March 2013. YouTube video. 16 March 2018. (-- removed HTML --) . Verley, Justin. What "KONY 2012" didn't tell you. 10 March 2012. YouTube video. 16 March 2018. (-- removed HTML --)
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    5th 2012 overnight viral sensation, by the American non-porfit organization Invisible Children referred to as “KONY 2012,” swept the globe in less than 24 hours. The purpose of the video is “to advocate for the arrest of the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and indicted Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony” (Su and Besliu). The video’s main subject is the African war criminal Joseph Kony, the narrator clearly defines this rebel’s crimes and the “movement” required to stop him. KONY 2012

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