Gladwell, Kirilenko and Watersa all talk about the use of social media in environmental communication. Gladwell talks about how Facebook activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice. The example that came to my mind when reading this was Kony 2012. During the start of the campaign, a 30 minute film was uploaded to YouTube by the non-profit organization Invisible Children entitled "Kony 2012". This kick started the #STOPKONY campaign on social media. Their mission was to use film, creativity and social action to end the use of child soldiers in Joseph Kony's rebel war and restore LRA-affected communities in Central Africa to peace and prosperity. Kony was a short documentary film that was produced by Invisible Children to make Kony famous, raise awareness for crimes that he was committing and hopefully leading to his arrest. I found it interested how Kony acknowledged that
they were going to use these celebrities as a tool to raise awareness, inspire
discussion and influence culture. The use of the word tool really stood out to
me because grammatically it’s a device that is used to carry out a particular
function. Therefore, their star persona is being used as a tool to catch the
audience’s attention and raise awareness. This relates to the idea of celebrity
culture in which celebrities obtain social power in exchange for selling a
sense of intimacy with audiences. For example, in the video on the presentation
Rihanna talks about how Twitter allows her to interact with fans and it can
help them understand who she is. This speaks to the idea of generating intimacy
with fans. She then brings in Kony and since it is youth driven, Twitter is the
best way to generate awareness among her fans for the cause. The interview is
also focused around the idea of her filming and getting in hands deep into the
cause of Kony and its victims. However, this also relates to the idea of
performed self and authentic self. As she attempts to create an understanding
with audiences about who she is through Twitter and her support for Kony, she
is performing her authenticity as a person in order to convince the public
about who she is. This is evident as she comments on how she feels that not
being Twitter creates a gap between her fans knowing who she is as a person and
her personality. Therefore, she used Twitter as a tool to talk to fans one on
one and create intimacy. However, her comments on Kony can be seen as performed
and framed as she works with Kony to relay their messages to her fans. Framing which is a concept we discussed in week one is another aspect to consider for Kony’s documentary. George Clooney mentions
in his video that a quote from a previous interview that was actually
commenting on Sudanese president was used. Although, he didn’t mention it in
relation to Kony, he did think that it related. Therefore, it is evident that
Invisible Children used a series of media content to frame their awareness for
their cause. Although, documentaries are supposed to represent authenticity
with real life spots that are taken in the moment to tell a story, it is
evident that the documentary of Kony was performed and staged.
Similarly, celebrities also use their social media to gain awareness about environmental issues. For example Alyssa Milano uses her Twitter account in 2010 to raise $92, 658 for a charity called Water which is a non-profit organization that strives to provide clean water for those who are don't have it. She also shares her love for animals through Twitter. In the article below, it states that she takes her eco-duties seriously as she posts photos, videos and blogs about various areas of interest. Her social media is used to vocalize her love for the environment. As Waters states that communication style reinforces public relations' writing strategies of keeping a message memorable for the audience by using dramatization and humor and comparing environmental issues to situation prevalent in the audience's daily life. This is shown through Alyssa's tweets because using her charity work for Water, she emphasized the idea of how important water is for everyone. Keeping this example in mind, I feel that the future of environmental communication will rely more and more on public figures such as celebrities and politicians to raise awareness about the environment. In doing so, social media the fastest source of communication with a large amount of audience members in a matter of seconds. I think that as social media networks and digital technology becomes more advanced, the use of electronic communication via the Internet will continue to grow.
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