Resisting Social Movements

After looking through the several issues or hot topics that the ONE campaign advocates for, I noticed that their 'Fighting Corruption' campaign could be an example of institutions resisting social change and social movements. Stewart, Smith, and Denton describe the strategy of evasion that many institutions use when resisting social movements. The following description can be compared to what many US and European governments are doing to prevent the needed resources and funds from natural resources in Africa get into the hands of the citizens that really need them. "[Institutions] may pretend that a social movement does not exist, see it as unworthy of institutional response, or feel it would be dangerous to their status of to society to grant the movement any official recognition." The 'Fighting Corruption' campaign is ONE's effort to fight for laws from US and European governments that would allow for a transparency of all the payments from oil, gas, and mining companies and to break down the different projects implemented by these companies to show how they are helping communities. Institutions, like the government and these different companies, have been accused of making "secret payments" and "dodgy deals" that prevents people living in these abundant natural resource areas from seeing any of the funds or wealth that is coming from projects in their area. These institutions are ignoring the fact that so much need and poverty surrounds them and by making secret payments, the money is going to selfish leaders instead of the needy. As the site states, "These secret payments allow unscrupulous leaders to pocket some of the profits instead of investing in vital services like schools, roads and health clinics that would benefit all citizens." Granting recognition to the work that the ONE campaign is doing would require these institutions to not only recognize the need that surrounds them as part of their company and project requirements but also take money away from these leaders and company owners, which could possibly endanger their status. It is obvious that these companies see the needs of these third world countries as unworthy because they continue to ignore them instead of breaking the "resource curse" that has some of the  "poorest people in the world living next to some of the most valuable resources." 

As long as these different institutions are resisting the social change that is needed, these people will continue to suffer from the "resource curse" and from poverty that has a chance to be alleviated. The ONE campaign is making a strong effort to be recognized and begin a social movement for this needed social change. 

"Food. Farming. Future: Breaking the Cycle of Malnutrition and Poverty" - A Narrative Vision

A current hot topic that is trending through the ONE Campaign and is currently a "hot topic" on their site is the fight to end the cycle of hunger and poverty or at least make a dent in the large number of people, especially children who go to bed hungry every night. Many of these children also face malnutrition and stunted growth because they are not receiving the nutrients they need to live even a moderately healthy life style. The new urge by the ONE campaign and the aid they are asking for from ONE supporters is to sign the petition that will encourage leaders meeting at the next 2012 G8 Summit to improve the L'Aquila Food Security Initiative. This initiative was implemented at the last G8 Summit in 2009 in order to "raise[d] the profile of agriculture and food security on the political agenda" in an effort to increase assistance in agricultural development. The initiative had its major flaws though and did reach the expected outcomes or progress that were needed to make a significant change nor were donors held accountable for the lack of progress because the initiative lacked transparency. This push for an improved initiative that would yield results, accountability, and a follow up on past promises is strong and something that can be seen at the next G8 Summit. An outline of the new and improved initiative reads as follows and this was directly taken from the ONE Campaign website under their Hot Topics Section: 


 the initiative should:

• Create clear goals and outcome targets to reduce poverty and stunting linked to measurable indicators;
• Support small-scale, women producers, sustainable farming approaches, year-long access to markets, and proven solutions to reducing childhood malnutrition;
• Provide a greater role for African leadership, and ensure that traditional donors work with non-traditional donors and recipients to share knowledge and experience;
• Incorporate robust measures to improve transparency and accountability, and establish an independent monitoring and evaluation mechanism; and
• Reaffirm the Rome Principles and improve them by:
• Clearly delineating all commitments, identifying specific, measurable actions for each;
• Aligning each action with widely accepted indicators for measuring progress; and
• Providing full transparency of all spending, interventions and meetings

The entire article on the site about this issue of hunger and the initiative read in a narrative form like those discussed in Chapter 9 of our Persuasion and Social Movements book. In between the chunks of very informative text are posters that provide a simple and clear explanation and analysis of this issue. The real narrative though comes from the different Case Studies that lie in between the text as well. These provide real stories on the effects that hunger and the lack of agricultural development are having on different areas and what is being done to help. From project, other organizations, and investment plans, a better life can be provided for people that are suffering from these issues. Their narratives provide what they were dealing with in the past and project their future with whichever plan or project is being implemented. The ONE Campaign website is also filled with other narratives, videos, and personal stories of those being affected by various issues that the ONE Campaign works to spread awareness about. These narratives provide a story that allow ONE supporters to relate to a cause and face the issue together, as "we." The campaign does a fantastic job of appealing to their supports using narratives filled with emotional and fear appeals that encourage more support and identification, even when the issues may not affect them directly. This Campaign on agriculture and the G8 Summit is just one example. 

The ONE Campaign Message and Spokespeople

Today I got a personalized email from the one and only famous actor Colin Farrell urging me to support ONE's new campaign on hunger and poverty. He began reminding me of the last time he emailed me, when he was bringing attention to an earlier ONE campaign on famine. His message was simple, take the one easy step of clicking the link in the email to add your name to the petition that would be sent to world leaders, urging them to implement "a bold global plan to ensure 50 million people escape poverty through agriculture and 15 million children no longer endure chronic malnutrition." After clicking the link, I was re-directed to the website to learn more about the campaign and view the numbers of others who have signed and shared this petition. The email was signed by Colin, specifically as a ONE member and not referring to his movie star status.

These different rhetorical uses reminded me of some of the strategies that were mentioned in our reading of "Making the News" by Jason Salzman. Salzman mentions that it is important to "figure out the words, images, and phrases that will communicate most effectively to your target audience [and] which spokespeople your audience will believe. In the case of the ONE campaign, having Colin Farrell send me a customized message definitely caught my attention and his use of words and rhetorical strategies made me relate with him and the cause he was advocating. By referring to himself as a ONE member, made me feel that we had something in common and I wanted to take action like he did. He also supports his credibility on the subject by reminding us that he has supported similar campaigns in the past. ONE did a great job effectively communicating this message to ONE Members and it seems to be a success because over 72,000 people have signed this petition for this new campaign as of right now.

Another strategy Salzman suggests using is keeping in simple and identifying "one central message." It is easy to see Farrell's message in the email although they could have displayed the message into one phrase like Salzman suggests. The new campaign is called "Thrive" and after hearing what the campaign is about, it is easy to see why the word "Thrive" is a great representation of the thriving and sustainable global agriculture plan that they are advocating for. It would be better though, if they could simplify the entire message a little more though through a simple phrase like "End World Hunger" or "Help Feed 15 million children."

Overall, I thought this email was a great portrayal of how the ONE campaign uses spokespeople and rhetorical strategies to catch member's attention and continue creating and implemting these different campaigns.

April Fools Rhetoric

The ONE Campaign does a weekly blog about their ONE Act a Week and this week's act was especially unique. Playing off of April Fools jokes, the ONE campaign sent out an email to all of its registered users with the headline that YouTube was banning cat videos from their site. That's right, videos of those cute little kittens getting into all kinds of silly situations that we all, some of us embarrassingly, like to watch would be banned from YouTube. Aghast by this prediction, members then clicked the link in the email and were directed to a different page on the ONE website with the headline "NEVER.GONNA.HAPPEN." YouTube would be dumb to ban kittens from their site, but one thing that the ONE campaign can confidently predict is that the "the beginning of the end of AIDS can happen... and by 2015!" This statement is followed by an arrow that directs viewers to sign the petition to congress to "Reverse budget cuts to the life-saving AIDS program PEPFAR and fulfill our commitments to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria." I, of course, signed the petition. The Act of the Week asked ONE campaign supporters to make predictions like this to catch other's attention and lead them to this page to sign the petition. For example, after signing the petition, I tweeted the same headline about cats being banned from YouTube with the link provided by ONE that would take whoever clicked on the link directly to the petition page. Supporters were encouraged to make creative predictions that seemed absurd but always led back to this possible and crucial prediction of ending aids. The rhetorical appeals here used by the campaign allow supporters to be a part of the movement as well, and I admire their use of their resources, inexpensive and creative, through twitter, Facebook, and email.

Here is a video about the #ipredict campaign: