MPC MAJOR RESEARCH PAPER “Let’s keep it about Kony, not Kony 2012” Exploring the shifts in language around a user generated hashtag during the Kony 2012 movement Liane Coulahan Dr. Wendy Freeman The Major Research Paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Professional Communication Ryerson University Toronto, Ontario, Canada Friday, September 6th 2013 Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... ii Author’s Declaration ................................................................................................................... iii Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 Theoretical Orientation ............................................................................................................... 5 Literature Review ........................................................................................................................ 10 Methods ......................................................................................................................................... 19 Findings ......................................................................................................................................... 22 Discussion ...................................................................................................................................... 38 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 43 References ...................................................................................................................................... 45 Abstract Social media has become more than a platform for social engagement and connectivity. Users have tapped into the power of social media‟s reach to connect with like-minded individuals around the world. Protests, revolutions and global movements are taking shape as a result of what the Internet affords us as users – immediate connectivity. This paper aims to explore Twitter as a platform for activist movements. Specifically, I look at the language used within the Kony 2012 movement and aim to understand how the language within tweets changed overtime by following a user-generated hashtag (#Kony2012). For this study, I analyzed 325 tweets from the Kony 2012 campaign. These tweets were collected from March 5th 2012 to March 17th 2012. My findings indicate that Twitter‟s hashtag function was always used in the three following ways: (1) Sharing Information, (2) Passive Calls to Action, (3) Strong Calls to Action. Overall, the tweets I studied surrounding #Kony2012 hashtag suggest that this movement was weak in mobilizing change but strong in raising awareness. i Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Wendy Freeman for her unwavering support and feedback throughout this entire process. I would also like to thank my second reader, Dr. Ava Cross for additional notes and encouragement. ii AUTHOR'S DECLARATION FOR ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION OF A MAJOR RESEARCH PAPER I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this Major Research Paper and the accompanying Research Poster. This is a true copy of the MRP and the research poster, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I authorize Ryerson University to lend this major research paper and/or poster to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I further authorize Ryerson University to reproduce this MRP and/or poster by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I understand that my MRP and/or my MRP research poster may be made electronically available to the public. iii Introduction This paper explores Twitter as a platform for activist movements. Specifically, I look at the language used within the Kony 2012 movement and aim to understand how language within tweets can change from one day to the next by following a user-generated hashtag. According to Bruns and Burgess (2011), Twitter has an important role in the dissemination of information during major events. To coordinate communications, people use the hashtag function, which they describe as a “largely user-generated mechanism for tagging and collating those messages – tweets- which are related to a specific topic” (p.2). Today‟s cyber citizens are using platforms like Twitter for story telling and fact checking – creating an uncomfortable destabilization between traditional and modern practices of information creation and information consumption. Unique Twitter features, like the hashtag, the 140-character limit and the speed of transmission, provide users with the accessibility to act as activists and democratic news disseminators. Furthermore, the Internet has afforded activism the vehicle by which it can evolve so that geography no longer stifles efforts to collaborate with like-minded individuals around the world. This research is important because activism has long been associated with grass-roots movements, which are typically characterized as locally based protests with a lack of resources and funding (Thorson et al., 2013). Today, activism is performed much differently because “digital media can reduce the cost of connecting and coordinating people and may dissolve some of the obstacles once thought to only be surmountable through bureaucratic social movement organizations” (Thorson et al., 2013, p.423). 1 Kony 2012 – The Documentary The Kony 2012 campaign was born out of a movement that started over nine years ago. In 2004, an organization called Invisible Children Inc. launched with a mission to bring awareness to the activities of the Lord‟s Resistance Army (LRA) in central Africa and its leader, Joseph Kony (Invisible Children, 2013). Initially, Invisible Children claimed that the Kony 2012 campaign started as an experiment to test the online community to see if an emotionally charged video could have the power to inspire people to create change and make an obscure war criminal become known by everyone (Invisible Children, 2013). Invisible Children claimed that making Kony famous would create global awareness of LRA atrocities, leading to the arrest of Joseph Kony, the end of the LRA, and the release of hundreds of Kony‟s child soldiers (Invisible Children, 2013). The 30-minute video, released on Tuesday March 5th, 2012 reached 100 million views within 6 days - making it the fastest growing viral video in history (Visible Measures, 2013). In the Kony 2012 documentary, Jason Russell, CEO of Invisible Children , highlights the fact that we‟ve come to an age where social media has become a revolutionary tool. Raving about the power that digitally literate citizens have to become actively engaged in changing the world, Jason Russell asks, “Who are you to end a war? I‟m here to tell you, who are you not to?” He does an excellent job at creating sympathy for the viewer when he tells the story of Joseph Kony to his 3-year-old son Gavin. By explaining the hard truth behind the LRA, the audience benefits from hearing the details in an extremely simplified manner. The rest of the documentary talks about rallying people, especially celebrities and major decision makers to first, make Kony famous, and second, to have him arrested. The call to action at the end of the documentary asks people to make Kony famous by doing two things. First, Jason Russell asks that people buy the 2 „Action Kit‟, which is a box that includes bracelets, posters and flyers for people to use and distribute with the goal of making Kony visible everywhere. The second and major call to action was called „Cover the Night‟. Cover the Night was supposed to be a daylong protest on April 20th, 2012 for people to rally together and cover every wall in every city with posters of Joseph Kony‟s face. This is the day where we will meet at sundown and blanket every street in every city till the sun comes up. We will be smart and we will be thorough. The rest of the world will go to bed Friday night and wake up to hundred of thousands of posters demanding justice on every corner. (Jason Russell, Kony 2012 documentary) The main call to action demanded that people physically participate in the movement. This was a request that obligated Kony 2012 participants to leave their computer screens and demonstrate their involvement by showing up in person. Cover the night was widely known for being an unsuccessful call to action, as momentum on social media had completely died by the time this movement was meant to take place. Kony 2012 Statistics The statistics born as a result of this film are important as they highlight the wide reach a documentary of this caliber can have. For example: 3.7 million people from 185 countries pledged their support for the campaign1. Invisible Children garnered 3.1 million likes and became the most liked non-profit organization on Facebook1. 3 There were 1,380,900 tweets per day about Kony 2012 in the three days after the story first hit Twitter2. 58% of young adults aged 18-29 said they had heard about the video in a national phone survey in the days following the launch1. 66%