Contribution to Book
In Defense of “Slacktivism”: How KONY 2012 Got the Whole World to Watch
Debates for the Digital Age: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Our Online World
(2015)
Abstract
The record-breaking viral video KONY 2012 made mistakes—and some of them ugly—but it also achieved something that is both difficult and important; by turning suburban teens into slacktivists, KONY 2012 made human rights “cool.” This chapter examines how the campaign used inspiration, aspiration, a glimpse of the future, and the lure of friendship to make it the type of cause that so many wanted to spread. It also defends the much-maligned practice of slacktivism as an online reboot of the more cherished protest march tradition.
Keywords
- Human Rights,
- Social Activism,
- Social Media,
- Whiteness Studies,
- Street Art,
- Slacktivism,
- Kony 2012
Disciplines
Publication Date
Fall November 23, 2015
Editor
Danielle Sarver Coombs and Simon Collister
Publisher
Praeger
ISBN
978-1440801235
Citation Information
Christopher Boulton. "In Defense of “Slacktivism”: How KONY 2012 Got the Whole World to Watch" Debates for the Digital Age: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Our Online World (2015) p. 321 - 332 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/chris_boulton/22/
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY-NC-SA International License.