Stop Kony 2012 - It just wouldn't stop spreading

A video of a campaign to stop the warlord, Joseph Kony had gone viral through the internet on Youtube and Vimeo. Joseph Kony is one of the most wanted warlords in the world who believed to have kidnapped 591 children in the past three years to recruit as his fighters, human shields and spies to build his army (Smith 2012). This video that is viral on the internet can be found easily on Youtube and Vimeo that had gotten a few million views and in the video, it gives a brief summary about Joseph Kony and his activity. It then further explain how serious the issue is becoming and later on the campaign ‘Stop Kony’ is introduced to gather funds and make Kony ‘famous’ so the US Government will continue the hunt for Joseph Kony.

The campaign ‘Stop Kony 2012' had gone viral since it was published on youtube and vimeo and transmitted through the internet and it just wouldn’t stop. This has also caused a misinformation and the credibility had been doubted since it hasn’t included any reliable sources. According to Silverman (2012), it is proven that incorrect information travels further and faster on social networking sites such as Twitter than corrections. Twitter is not one of the top-10 tools of communication to share information on the internet due to the vast amount of users in the world today (Norton 2012).

 People tend to perceive that the information on the internet is credible especially if it is in a form of a video, because people would assume that film makers would have invested the same effort in reassuring the credibility of the information just as much effort as they invest in making the film (Flanagin & Metzger 2000). In another words, with the technology nowadays will not stop passing from one to another when it hits the internet in fact it might even multiply by numbers which also is prune to misleading information or incredible sources.

Flanagin, AJ & Metzger, MJ 2000, ‘Internet-Based Information Retrieval and Evaluation’, Perception of Internet Information Credibility, Vol. 77, No, 3, viewed on 7^th June 2012, from http://www.jasonmorrison.net/iakm/4006074.pdf

Norton, C 2012, ‘Twitter stats and analytics tools - top 10’, Socialmediatoday, viewed on 7^th June 2012, from http://socialmediatoday.com/index.php?q=SMC/165191

Silverman, C 2012, ‘Visualized: Incorrect information travels farther, faster on Twitter than corrections’, Poynter, viewed on 7^th June 2012, from http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/regret-the-error/165654/visualized-incorrect-information-travels-farther-faster-on-twitter-than-corrections/

Smith, D 2012, ‘Joseph Kony kidnapped 591 children in past three years, UN report reveals’, The Guardian, viewed on 7^th June 2012, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/07/joseph-kony-united-nations-report