Kony 2012 was a YouTube video that went viral in March of 2012 urging people to “make Joseph Kony famous.” It gained almost instant public fame and went on to influence the Kony 2012 movement. The purpose of the movement was to raise awareness about what Kony was doing to child soldiers in Uganda and what he had been doing for decades, and to get those with political and cultural power on board as well. The movement appeared to have great success in the Western world, but what did it really accomplish? In this paper I will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the video and its subsequent movement by examining the motives behind making the video, the claims and assumptions of the filmmakers, and finally looking at the movement through the eyes of development. Ultimately,…show more content… The video was clearly aimed at young people, and those were the people who most supported the movement. The filmmakers took advantage of the large role that social media has on the younger generation by encouraging the use of social media to “make Kony famous.” The goal of the movement was to raise awareness about the situation in Uganda, and to implore the government and high profile celebrities to raise awareness as well. The movement did not seem to really accomplish anything except for raising awareness; knowing about something is useless if something is not done about it. In my brief research into the outcome of the Kony 2012 movement, I did not see anything about the effect the movement had in Uganda or on the LRA itself. The impact was brief and intense in the developed world, but was quickly forgotten after a year or two. Ultimately, it was the NGO Invisible Children, who made the video that went viral, who benefitted from the cause. They became famous, not Kony, who has still not been found, and they benefitted from the majority of the money that was given to the