Social Action and Community Media
Social action and community media can be local and can address issues that are problems to your local community such as drugs or gang issues that are increasing.short films or documentaries based on local issues can be very successful in making people aware of things as they will be living amongst these problems and will want to do something about fixing these issues to create and more safe environment for themselves.An example of a social action that brought a global change was "Kony 2012" by Jason Russell.This social action which was led by Jason Russell and globally raised a lot of money and gained a huge amount of recognition and followers because many people felt strongly that they did not like what was happening and therefore wanted to participate in the cause which was to stop Joseph Kony and his LRA group from abuducting children in Africa.
This had a huge impact as it raised awareness globally to many countries who never knew this was happening in Africa.Also many important people such as high elected people in the United States and even the president Barack Obama were involved in the Kony 2012 movement.Jason Russell's Kony 2012 movement was so successful that he managed to convince Barack Obama to deploy United States advisors to aid the Ugandan army as Kony had been hiding in Uganda at the present time.For all of this successful a very powerful documentary was needed and Jason Russell provided a very engaging documentary which captured over 100 million views.
The documentary was fairly formal and used engaging language to make the audience understand the purpose of the campaign and made the audience want to join and help the cause.He used emotive language and also included his personal friend Jacob who had experienced problems and had been abducted by the LRA who was shown speaking about his time under the LRA and how his brother was killed.Afterwards it shows Jacob in tears as he reveals that the LRA had abducted and killed his brother.With language and imagery such as this,it strikes the audiences emotions and makes them want to do something about the situation in Uganda.It brings the audience a sense of urgency and this made the documentary very effective.Also Jason Russell used words such as "We","Us" and "You" to make the audience feel included and to tell the audience that their help will benefit everyone and that everyone who joins in will be important to the cause this persuaded many people and brought awareness as it let people know the impact that their help would bring.The campaign had such an effect that the percentage of civilians being killed by the LRA fell by 67% from 2011 to 2012.
The way the camera is used in the documentary is very effective and is used in may ways to convince the audience that joining the community and Kony 2012 movement would be beneficial to everyone. It showed long range shots of people of all ages doing this to help spread the word about Joseph Kony and raise awareness of the invisible children. At some points in the documentary the camera pans across the screen showing large groups of people holding posters about Kony and this done a number of times also showing the names of the cities that are all following this movement. These cities are all across the world and this is done to enlighten the viewer and let them know that the whole world is coming together for this movement, and the purpose of showing all these places is so that the audience knows that they can be included and will be able to take action.
The camera also zooms in when talking about important things, such as when Jason Russell is reading a letter from Barack Obama it zooms in on the letter, focusing on important information and key words. This is done so that the audience cant look past it and knows exactly what is happening and to let the audience know how great of a contribution they can make as the letter from Barack Obama says that the US have deployed advisors in Uganda to track down Kony. Also with this information the viewer realises that the movement is progressing well and that it is going forward and that everyone plays a part. The camera also has a strong impact on the audiences emotions when the documentary talks about the "invisible children" and how they are suffering under the LRA.The camera first talks about Jason Russell's friend Jacob who was abducted by the LRA and managed to escape. The camera zooms in on Jacob as he talks about witnessing his brother being killed and it shows the sadness he has as it closes up on him in tears and this will impact the viewer as it will sadden them and want them to prevent this from happening to anyone else.
This is done to make the audience want a civil community where nobody is at threat and everyone is safe. The reason this documentary is done is to encourage people to have a voice and to make their voice heard across the world to gain more awareness and attention to the topic they are trying to get across their audience. Another purpose of this is to get the idea of human rights and social justice across and put into effect across the world and that the children in Uganda under the LRA led by Kony are being deprived of that.
This idea creates a strong impact socially as a huge percentage of people are involved in human rights acts and justice acts to make the living standard for everyone fair and humane so that people do not feel oppressed and are living comfortably. A documentary like this would be a reason for human rights activists to make their voices heard and to bring awareness globally that people around the world still live under oppression and discomfort and that it should come to an end as it is not morally correct. Community media productions are done to help show people that these global injustices and inequalities need to be balanced and be done correctly and that if these global issues go unheard of, they will continue for much longer and that means many people in the areas of these issues will continue to suffer. Community productions such as Kony 2012 update people of things that are going on around the world that may not be mentioned on the news and that people are blocked off from seeing, meaning that social action needs to take place but an audience must acknowledge the issues they face and help put a stop to it.
Also if the founders of movements such as Kony 2012 have a large group, that can bring confidence and belief that what they are trying to achieve will succeed as they have a large following meaning that there voices will be heard which will show a sign of people coming together and being united for an important cause and a sense of solidarity within the organization, showing that by just putting out a documentary of by using another way of getting your issue across to an audience that is unaware of it, can create a huge movement and gain a lot of support. With this, social action can take place as their is enough support to possibly win over key figures, or people who are well known enough to help create an action that will take place to stop the issue that is being addressed. The purpose of social action and community media is to make people aware of social or global issues that go unheard of an to put a stop to it by letting people know the problems it causes and how people all across the world or in the area can play a part in preventing it from happening. This is also done to create unity and a sense of justice and safety. It also shows that governments are not always needed to get a social or global issues across to an audience and that by people simply showing and speaking their mind on issues that are blocked away from most of us, that they can be overcome if people unite together and take action.
