Invisible Children, the makers of the film KONY 2012, have released a second video, a followup to the first, called KONY 2012: Part II. Their purpose in making the 20-minute film is to explain the campaign to rid the world of Joseph Kony, Ugandan war criminal and kidnaper, by the end of 2012. The video takes a closer look at the solutions offered by leaders of communities affected by Kony's crimes and child abduction.
However, the video seems like more of a reaction to the widespread criticism of the first video rather than a real attempt to continue their campaign.
Part II starts off with a montage of clips from news sources, such as CNN, and other media that criticize Invisible Children and their KONY 2012 video. These sources call the first video "naive" and argue that it "manipulates the facts" to emotionally blackmail its audience into blind action against a warlord they have only seen in a 30-minute clip made by a shady nonprofit organization. The second video, just as the first, relies heavily on pathos, showing images of suffering children and painting portraits of suffering communities. To add some ethos, an Invisible Children narrator follows the montage by saying that Invisible Children has created the second video to explain the first. Invisible Children spokespeople admit they need to explain themselves. But in reality, this really doesn't add ethos--it subtracts from their credibility because it looks they are now trying to cover their tracks and mobilize people to "informed action," rather than just riding the hype of the latest social media trend, which the first video did in less than a day. The second video has garnered just over 300,000 hits in a day, significantly less than the first Kony video, indicating that the KONY 2012 trend was just that--a passing fad.
Is anyone still paying attention to Kony? It doesn't seem like it. And that's unfortunate, because whether Invisible Children is honest or manipulative or not, they have a point--people are suffering half a world away, and the rest of the world needs to be aware.
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