Work In Progress Blog Where I share all my creative projects…

I decided to analyze a documentary photograph, specifically the Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of the Sudan Girl by Kevin Carter.

• Historical Content
  • It was taken in 1994 by Kevin Carter during the Sudan famine and shows a young girl dying from starvation. She is attempting to crawl to a United Nations food camp, while a vulture stands behind her waiting for her to die.
  • The photo shocked the world, not only because of how the photograph depicts the girl but, also, shows that the photographer would take that kind of photo. People were shocked when they learned Kevin Carter stared at the girl for several minutes while decided how to best angle the camera. The vulture landed several feet while he was deciding how to capture the moment, and after taking the picture Carter chased the bird away. But he apparently did not help the child, and no one knows if she survived or not.
  • Proposition
    • The purpose of this photograph was to initially shock it’s audience. People did not have many documented images of the Sudan famine so the picture really encompasses all the humanity and horror the photographer wanted to project.
    • Proof
      • The photograph reaches its audience primarily through ethos. He is capturing this girl at her lowest point, seemingly completely vulnerable. Her age, also, significantly impacts the photograph because starvation and death are issues young children should be blissfully unaware of. Instead, this girl is crawling simply to get food and survive just a little longer.
      • The photo is, also, powerful because of the chosen vector of attention. The image would not be nearly as powerful if Carter had decided to crop the vulture out of the picture. Instead, he captured the juxtaposed positions of the fragile child and the stalking predator. Having the animal several feet back, surveying the child in her struggle, makes the image even more powerful.
      • Evaluation of the Photo
        • Effect – the photograph is extremely successful in reaching its audience. By being such a strong example of ethos and using very specific cropping, the photo addresses the struggle and famine of the entire nation seen through this starving girl.
        • Artistry – the strategy the photographer chose to use specifically was adjusting the vector of attention to include the vulture.
        • Ethics – the long-term implications of the photo were that the public reacted even more urgently to the Sudanese famine. It sparked horror into the American public and actually forced them to act. Unfortunately, Kevin Carter committed suicide just a couple months after taking the photograph due to depression. No one knows if the photo was what really sparked his depression.

Outline Format

Topic: Kony 2012 video

Purpose: Purpose of the video was to spread knowledge about Joseph Kony and bring attention to the problems in Uganda.

Thesis Statement: The Kony 2012 video attempts to compel their audience to react by using pathos, commonplaces, and targeting a specific audience.

Introduction

Attention Strategy:  Joseph Kony is the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (or LRA), and he has been charged with crimes against humanity. According to an organization known as Invisible Children, the LRA has abducted women and children in Uganda, forcing the women to become “sex slaves” and the children to murder their own countrymen and sometimes even their own families.

Orienting Material:  Jason Russell is the director of the Kony 2012 video. He went to Uganda and documented interviews of survivors and did research on the issue which created the Kony 2012 video, which currently has over 92 million views on YouTube. The video focuses specifically on Kony and the LRA and shows what has been done and, also, what has not been done about the issue.

Preview: I’m going to be telling you about how exactly the Kony 2012 video is a civic artifact, how the artifact attempts to persuade/reach its audience, and what sort of outcome has come from this artifact being circulated.

Body

• This artifact is civic because it attempts to persuade the audience that the situation in Uganda is an issue that not only needs to be addressed, but discussed to the point of producing results.
• It attempts to persuade the audience by using a lot of pathos (giving specific facts about Kony and showing interviews of survivors).
• The artifact reaches out to a specific audience. The audience is specifically the younger generation, the generation that wouldn’t necessarily know a lot about the issue. How they reach this audience is taking advantage of the amount of people that are using social networking sights (YouTube, Facebook, twitter) and how information is circulated in the United States. By using celebrity’s influence, the Kony 2012 campaign reached even more audiences (Oprah’s tweet)
• The narrator in the film uses the phrase “Make Kony a household name.” The term a household name is one of the commonplaces the film uses. Being a household name means that not only do the adults know about the person but the children do as well. The poster shows infamous figures in history: Adolf Hitler, Sudan Hussein, and in the front Joseph Kony. This poster is conveying to the audience that Joseph Kony should be as notoriously known Adolf Hitler and Sudan Hussein.

• What level of effort does it require?
• School systems showing the film/video
• Posters going up around schools
• What might compel someone to act?
• In 2005, the United Nations unanimously decided to uphold a law known as the “Responsibility to Protect.” This law states that every person on this earth has inherent rights as a human beings that need to be protected, whether they be protected by their own country or by what the United Nations call the “global community.” The video uses this fact to convey to the audience that it is the global communities responsibility to address the issue.
• The video states that it is our “civic duty” to attempt to reach out to our government leaders and ask them to make an effort to resolve the issue. (shudson article)

Conclusion

Summary Statement – The video successfully reaches out to its audience and does compel people to act because of the examples of pathos and their reasoning behind creating the video. Commonplaces and the definition of being a “global community” are used to convince the audience that it is necessary to act.

Concluding Remark – In conclusion, because of the amount of views the Kony 2012 video has gotten the social media campaign has created global response. For example, due to the amount of global attention, the Peace and Security Union, which is a branch of the African Union, has committed themselves to launching a 5,000 person military effort to find Joseph Kony and arrest him. The African Union consists of almost every country on the African continent, including Uganda, Dominican Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and South Sudan, which are the primary countries Joseph. School systems around the country and around the globe have raised money, circulated posters, shared videos, and ultimately proved to government leaders that it was an issue the public was concerned about and wanted them to address.

Reference Page(s)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_Ue6REkeTA

http://invisiblechildren.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/invisiblechildreninc?feature=results_main

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc