Congo Online Awareness Campaign

Congo Online Awareness Campaign

by Tatenda Nyati

Congo elections: Why is our revolution not being televised?

Abstract

The people of the Democratic Republic of Congo went to the polls on 28 November to choose a president and a parliament, in the second elections since long-term leader Mobutu Sese Seko was ousted in 1997. The Democratic Republic of Congo's election commission has postponed announcing the winner of the country's presidential election by 48 hours, fuelling further tension between the government and the opposition amid claims of irregularities.

"The Independent National Electoral Commission is not in a position to publish the final results today [Tuesday]. The announcement is postponed by 48 hours," the commission said in a message displayed on state broadcaster RTNC. The five-year mandate of the incumbent Congolese President Joseph Kabila expired on Tuesday at midnight, and there is much confusion regarding whether or not this move contravenes the country's constitution.

The latest result projections, announced earlier in the day by the commission, gave Kabila 46.4 per cent with votes from just over two-thirds of polling centres counted. His main rival, Etienne Tshisekedi, has 36.2 per cent.

Objectives

The situation in Congo is quickly deteriorating. There has been an increased military presence inside of Congo with troops being deployed across the country incase of post-election violence.

Already the Congolese Diaspora has responded to voice their opinion & attempt to put focus on what is happening in Congo by having protests across the world in Canada, South Africa & the U.K. None of these protests have received the media coverage that they deserve, the reports on them have been inaccurate & do not give detail as to why exactly people are protesting.

The main aim of this campaign is to raise awareness of the situation in the DRC, to be specific the elections that have just recently been held.

To inform people on the urgency of the situation & to create a discourse that is coherent about the elections in Congo to raise awareness.

To create a platform where people in the Congolese Diaspora are talking about the elections & informing the wider public as well as each other on events in Congo relating to the elections

To get Congo into the mainstream media on TV & in print.

Twitter/Facebook

Twitter is an excellent platform that needs to be utilised to raise awareness.

When tweeting about Congo it's important to use & stick to a #tag that will be used to follow the conversation. The following tags are being by many people on twitter at the moment

#Congo

#DRC

#Congo2011

#DRC2011

#CongoElections

#Congo11

These are the top #tags that are being used when talking about Congo. These should be used when searching for information about Congo or looking to connect with people who are talking about the subject.

Follow people that are actively talking about the elections in Congo and engage in conversation with them. Then the use of #tags will get more attention, raise awareness & get the topic trending which is one of the goals.

The first step is to connect/follow people who are talking about the elections. Here is a list of the top people who are talking extensively on the subject that you can engage with.

https://twitter.com/#!/congofriends

https://twitter.com/#!/kambale

https://twitter.com/#!/FreeFairDRC

https://twitter.com/#!/allafrica

https://twitter.com/#!/KateBomz

https://twitter.com/#!/NubianCzar

https://twitter.com/#!/imakiT

https://twitter.com/#!/CongoWomenNYC

https://twitter.com/#!/RotaEnt

https://twitter.com/#!/Actress_Trish

https://twitter.com/#!/teakay09

https://twitter.com/#!/Afrotonomy

https://twitter.com/#!/annagueye

https://twitter.com/#!/CinematicZee

https://twitter.com/#!/LaSheek

https://twitter.com/#!/KateBomz

This list should grow as we connect to one another & concentrate out efforts by engaging in discourse. Retweeting one another. Sharing links i.e. articles and videos on things regarding Congo. Using the already mentioned #tags to get them trending.

Another crucial element of the twitter campaign is to tweet people who have access to a large audience i.e. musicals, politicians, journalists but who you know will be interested in the the story.

Tweet these individuals and ask them to RT the story/link you have given them, preferably a link to a video because it's a format that easy to access people are most likely to watch. Also make sure you use one of the #tags when tweeting these.

*IMPORTANT* WE MUST TWEET MAINSTREAM MEDIA NEWS OUTLETS!

One thing that is evident is that there has been a lack of media coverage on the elections in Congo. It is important that we constantly tweet outlets such as

https://twitter.com/#!/BBCNews

https://twitter.com/#!/BBCWorld

https://twitter.com/#!/AJEnglish

https://twitter.com/#!/SkyNews and any others you can think of (for those outside of the UK tweet those in your country)

Press

https://twitter.com/#!/guardian

https://twitter.com/#!/TelegraphNews

https://twitter.com/#!/TheIndyNews & any others you can think of (for those outside of the UK tweet those in your country)

But it is also very important that you Tweet any articles off their sites to do with the elections! This will raise awareness because people who read these newspapers will come across the stories when they search any of them on twitter.

Facebook

Post links, articles, videos etc to do with the elections in Congo.

News/Blogs

Here are just a few sites that have information/News regarding the elections in Congo.

http://www.abyznewslinks.com/congk.htm (has links to many sites)

http://allafrica.com/congo_kinshasa/

http://congosiasa.blogspot.com/

http://congoplanet.com/news.jsp

This is the basic premise of the campaign and a starting point to get the Congo elections in the mainstream. We can only do what is within our power and online campaigning does have effects.

FACEBOOK

YOUTUBE

BLOGS

SPREAD THE WORD!!!