Viral Videos and Social Action

            I chose to blog about how much change can come out of video supporting a cause that goes "viral". Viral is a term used on the internet to describe some sort of media that gets insanely popular in a short amount of time, most of the time this "media" is a video. One example of this was "Kony 2012", which was a video depicting an ongoing issue in Uganda consisting of a militia overlord that recruits kids into his army by terrible means. The video then goes on to tell you how you can make a difference by contacting govt. officials about the issue and donating money. The video correctly used pathos, logos, ethos which is one of the many reasons the video got so popular. The main reason it got so popular was because it evoked emotion, at first in a sad way but then towards the end the viewer feels empowered and obligated to do something. This video alone got 98.5 million views, raked in millions of donations, was on just about everyone's Facebook, and ultimately pressured the international govt. to get involved. The campaign took a turn for the worse when the spokesperson of the video was arrested for "masturbating in public", but that's besides the point. This campaign did so much from a social action standpoint by just posting a 30 minute video. That's all it takes in this day and age to get millions informed and to act on an issue. The internet is pretty crazy.