With KONY bombarding us from every corner of social media, it was only a matter of time before the skeptics would get beneath the surface of this phenomenon. Invisible Children is said to be manipulating facts  in order to get the public on their side. In an article published by the Council of Foreign Relations they insisted "such organizations have manipulated facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of LRA abductions and murders and emphasizing the LRA's use of innocent children as soldiers, and portraying Kony -- a brutal man, to be sure -- as uniquely awful, a Kurtz-like embodiment of evil. They rarely refer to the Ugandan government atrocities or those of Sudan's People's Liberation Army, such as attacks against civilians or looting of civilian homes and businesses, or the complicated regional politics fueling the conflict." As Agenda Setting theory tells us, the media tells us what to think about by the prevalence they place on issues.
     On social media websites we have compounded this effect to the point where the issue of KONY was thought to be something new by many people. This is not so as the LRA has existed for many years before the video which shot Kony to stardom was created. This incident just shows the power of the media as Invisible Children is centred around advocacy and not aid, a fact which is earning them much criticism. Debates can be seen pervading throughout Facebook as to how sharing a video is ineffective. However they do have a link to donate on their website, without clearly stating whether the donation goes towards aid or campaigning. On the part of Invisible Children, when does the actual aid start rather than just raising awareness through media campaigns?

Also, is it because the Western powerful countries are speaking out against KONY, that the rest of the world must now follow suit?

Statement by the President on the Signing of the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-signing-lords-resistance-army-disarmament-and-northern-uganda-r

Still some on social media websites are making light of the situation as they always do. Here are some humorous pictures from Facebook and Twitter which have been covering my homepage.