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With Online Videos, Human Rights Go Viral
Andrew Woods writes in Slate that in the age of YouTube stories of torture and abuse spread to new audiences with a more visceral immediacy. "It's a new way to promote human rights norms, and it's changing the role of the human rights lawyer," he writes.
With Online Videos, Human Rights Go Viral
Woods, a human rights lawyer himself, notes that while advocates have always had access to the press, online video's viral properties mean that if a video is compelling and well produced, people will tune in and get the message, and governments will be pressured to respond.
As user-generated outlets like YouTube grab an ever-greater share of the media market, human rights activists will increasingly depend on online tools to change the cultural landscape and with it, they hope, the legal one. In the meantime, look out for films like Rendition -- the tale of an Arab man kidnapped and tortured by the CIA, staring Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Meryl Streep -- which opens this fall. Khaled el-Masri, who couldn't get a judge to listen to his story, is coming soon to a theater near you.
