Invisible Children fades away
What it means for the future of youth activism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2247650 |
|---|---|
| Authors | K E Cheney (0000-0002-4216-7410, Youth Development, corresponding author), Kristen Cheney (Senior Lecturer in Children and Youth Studies at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Hague, Netherlands. Her current research interests include orphanhood and the international political economy of humanitarian responses to orphans, as well as youth sexual and reproductive health issues, primarily in eastern Africa) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 8-11 |
| Publication date | 2015-10-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anthropology Today (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0268-540X • E-ISSN: 1467-8322 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-8322.12198 |
| OpenAlex | W1918743740 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 12 |
The global reach of Invisible Children's viral video KONY 2012 supposedly established the efficacy of 'spectacular humanitarianism': sympathetic spectatorship of suffering others through the mediatization, commodification, and depoliticization of Western humanitarian action. However, their 'brand' of activism ultimately proved unsustainable, as Invisible Children announced in late 2014 that it was phasing out operations. Here I consider how Invisible Children, as a quintessential spectacular humanitarian movement, has shaped youth activists' subjectivities in the global North. Drawing on activism, media, and humanitarian studies critiques, as well as interviews with recent Invisible Children interns, I argue that though Invisible Children's approach can attract and launch young people into social activism, it can also hinder growth beyond the problematic confines of a spectacular humanitarian approach which reproduces, rather than transforms, global power relations. However, young activists can and do go on to cultivate a more critical and self-reflexive approach to global social activism
Commodification · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Reflexivity · Social media · Social movement · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Social Media and Politics
The Ironic Spectator
Kony 2012 Through a Prism of Video Advocacy Practices and Trends
Kony 2012 in review
Humanitarian Campaigns in Social Media
Protest, Inc. The corporatization of activism
Geographies of children and youth III
Spectacular Rhetorics
Global generations
Mobile Communication and Society
Beneath Kony 2012
| Citations per year | 0.25 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2022 - 2022 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |