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://www.youtube.com/user/invisiblechildreninc?feature=results_main
Reading through the outline I think you’re off to a good start. It clearly shows what you plan to talk about and it doesn’t feel like there is bias in your speech. If there is some constructive criticism to add, maybe you could mention the backlash that the video received due to outdated information, shady organization etc.
I am so glad that you are doing this topic because I know how controversial it is and that it truly can spark a discussion on civic engagement. Your outline really gave me an understanding about what to expect from your speech and I am really looking forward to it. I think it would be awesome though if you could show a short clip from the Kony 2012 Video instead of solely showing the poster because I believe the video is extremely impactful and full of the rhetorical devices that you plan to further explain in your speech.
We discussed your topic in class on Wednesday, and I think this is an excellent idea to discuss civic life and what not. I’m really interested to see how your presentation goes, especially if it sparks group discussion (considering the controversy that originally surrounded this video). Well-planned outline, really gives a clear picture of your presentation.