Kony 2012 question 1

What techniques does the text use to engage the audience?

Kony 2012 uses various techniques to engage the audience.

As first of all he uses techniques such as direct mode of address where he uses pronouns such as “our time” and “we”. Which makes the audience feel that he is talking to us and that it our responsibility and our problem, and giving the idea of Zeitgeist. Which engages us to listen further as what we have to do and also make us want to be a part of Kony 2012. Also the camera shots such as Point of view shot at the birth scene, it makes us feel more involved and part of the whole issue, also the close up’s etc.

Furthermore at the beginning of the footage we see Jason showing the birth of baby. Where we are let into his personal life. Whereas the voiceover is Jason’s we feel that he is a reliable narrator as we have this relationship of trust with him as he has let us in his personal life then we should listen to him to. Also the voice over, suggests the “voice of god” and gives the idea of expository documentary, whereas later we see Jason later giving the idea of reflexive . And the tone of the voice over at the beginning suggests that this is a serious issue as his tone of voice of is serious giving us the idea we should listen. It also anchorages the scenes for example the scene of the world and Jason talking about social networking etc. And also the uses of parallel sound where the non-diegetic music is going according to the mood of the scene.

Moreover we more likely to identify with him due the shots of him with his family and him with casual clothing, the natural lighting etc. Makes us relate to his lifestyle as we have a normal family life to. Furthermore he being a father figure etc. makes us feel we should listen to him as we can relate to him, such as the idea of “trust”.

It also shows a sense of the narrative theory such as at the beginning we see a montage of good and happy videos e.g. child being rescued, person hearing for the first time etc. gives the sense of equilibrium and then we are introduced to Jacob and his life in Uganda showing the sense of disequilibrium. Also in the video montage we see the “share” button various amount of times which is a sense of the hypodermic syringe as we are injected with the idea of sharing with video with our friends. Furthermore he also talks about how social networking has changed the way we live e.g. the idea of “Global Village” as even though we are separate from each other social network brings us together and we are aware of things happening across of the world. Showing how strong E-media has become.

Lastly when it come’s psychographics, we can see “carers” are most likely to be able to relate to this as it shows how people in Uganda are suffering and contemporary society are not bothered about it. However we can say they are reflecting dominant and patriarchal ideologies as we see a American male giving voice over.