After watching the Africa for Norway videos on YouTube in
class on Monday, it got me thinking about music and charity concerts such as the
Global Citizen Festival and whether they are in fact beneficial. One of the
things we discussed in class on Monday was how the eradication of extreme
poverty is the main challenge of our time. The Global Citizen Festival is an
example of a charity concert that attempts to address this very issue of
extreme poverty. In class I got to thinking of whether the concert was in fact
beneficial, whether it made the attendees ‘global citizens’, whether the
festival was worth it and if so how.
For those of you that don’t know, the Global Citizen
Festival is held in New York City’s Central Park (an esteemed location in the
heart of one of the most privileged cities in the world), there are roughly
60,000 attendees and artists, policy makers, government members and influencers
also attend, all listening to speeches, listening and watching performances and
music and all with the same goal of eradicating global poverty by 2030. This
past festival took place on September 27, 2014. Some of the world leaders that
attended this year were the World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon, Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and Prime Minister
of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, as well as over 30 celebrities such as Jay Z
and Beyonce, Carrie Underwood, Tiesto. The festival proves to be a very
star-studded event. In order to get a free ticket for this event, one must simply
answer some questions on the Global Citizen Festival website which will then
put the person into a drawing with the chance to win one of the 48,000 free
tickets.
I believe that the festival simply serves as a catalyst to
help build a movement—it is also broadcasted to millions on television but I am
not sure if it does anymore than just that. Advocacy is absolutely a critical
part of this global issue, however it needs more than that. I admit that I
watched the concert on TV, but I didn’t think much more of it just being a form
of entertainment. I think it more so relieves our guilty consciences allowing
us to “pretend” we were doing something meaningful by all agreeing that
something needs to be done about poverty. I also feel like these concerts allow
world leaders excellent PR opportunities to say they sympathize with a popular
notion of justice or human rights, but as soon as the TV goes off, the leaders
are back to what they were doing before, which it seems like sometimes it is
just advocacy. Ultimately, I don’t think a concert as large as this will ever
be a solution in itself to ending extreme poverty, but it can certainly be a
catalyst for a broader advocacy movement that can have some real impact.
Lastly, I would like to bring the notion of slacktivism into
this conversation. In order to win tickets to this show one must register, then
you are encouraged to watch videos, sign petitions and share posts on FaceBook,
Twitter, etc. in order to win points. Eight points guarantees one entry into
the lottery. This system demands a person to devote their time to watching long
videos and reading equally long articles about improving health. If lucky
enough to gain a ticket to the event, you are repeatedly told you are making a
difference in the world simply by sitting on the Great Lawn and listening to
your favorite singers perform in front of you. The problem with this is that
your attendance is not actually impactful because you don’t really do anything.
Ultimately after your day at the concert you feel as though you made a
difference so in most cases I would assume that a lot of the attendees don’t
actively involve themselves in a charitable way beyond that point. I am interested in your thoughts on whether a
huge charity concert full of celebrity performers can make a true impact or
whether it is simply a tremendous PR mechanism for celebrities and global leaders
and a way for ordinary people to feel as though they are being impactful.
Below is a link to on the impact/outcome of the concert.
Also I encourage everyone to read some of the comments about the concert on the article below, they're really funny but also thought provoking in regards to the concerts impact:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/09/26/351551568/a-concert-with-jay-z-and-the-president-of-india-aims-to-end-poverty
I really like how you connected this type of 'charity' work to slactivism. I think that these types of events are worth it, but they need better planning and they need to stay focused on the issue of poverty and not on the celebrities who are there for publicity. I agree that it serves more as a catalyst for the movement because most people would only look at it as a form of entertainment and then hear some things about poverty. Its ok to be entertained for a night, but when the lights turn off I wonder who still cares.
ReplyDeleteI really like the point system idea that they use for giving out tickets, but I think it could be better. I think that they should use the point system so that when they reach a certain point value they have the opportunity to then buy the ticket with the proceeds going to poverty. This way people would be informed, they would be advocates for poverty, and they would also donate money. This would also ensure that the people that attend the event actually care about poverty and they were willing to put in some of their effort and time and they would be the ones deserving of entertainment.
I find it ironic that during our lesson when we were discussing the original Norway For Africa event, I too made the connection to the Global Citizen festival. I've attending all three years of the festival, but only this year did I find myself in the same predicament as yourself. While attending I found surrounded by self-proclaimed "changemakers", who were attending the event for the social/musical aspect rather than for the festival's true purpose of attempting to eradicate world hunger and make education a universal right throughout the world. These people were more concerned with seeing the celebrities that were present such as Beyonce, Hugh Jackman, and Jessica Alba rather than the true activist that were such as Malala (although she wasn't physically there she spoke through video), General Ban Ki-moon, and the prime ministers of countries hoping to better conditions for those that reside in them. As you stated, I found that the festival succeeded in instilling a temporary sense of being a "global citizen" in the attendees, even though these people were doing relatively little to actually provide aid to the cause
ReplyDeleteThe problem you identified is one which has bothered me as well, that many people only see the festival as a form of "entertainment" while completely disregarding its good intentions. I admire the fact that instead of completely disregarding the festival entirely, you acknowledge that it does raise awareness, acting as a catalyst to bring about change. While attending the festival, I experienced the same feeling of slacktivism you described in your last paragraph. I found myself surrounded by many attendees who were impartial to the notion of making a difference, and even I began to wonder what differences my actions of merely sitting on a lawn and listening to music were making.
Shelby raises a great point, that perhaps reforms in the structures of the concert can perhaps bring about a better notion to the idea of "charity concerts". During the festival I noticed that while there were many informational booths to raise awareness, there were very few booths present to raise funds. Perhaps through fundraising and making people pay for their tickets, with their currency being donated as Shelby pointed out, then the Global Citizen Festival can stray from the conventions of slacktivism, and more towards a festival striving to bring about actual change.
Betty-
ReplyDeleteI really like how you commented on charity events as a PR mechanism. I always wonder whether it's a great way to raise awareness and money or just a clever scheme for profit. You could say that the social media aspect such events is a form of activism. Undoubtedly, these kinds of events result in a pass of social media posts which could raise awareness and inspire people to take action. But is that enough? Often the focus seems to be on the high profile attendees and taking selfies at the concert. If social media really did act as a catalyst for action, would going to the concert (even with just the intentions of listening to music and getting a new profile picture) still be slacktivism?
Betty,
ReplyDeleteYour post is very insightful on the function the Global Citizen Festival serves and how it can be a potential catalyst for a greater movement towards ending poverty. The Global Citizen Festival does seem to have a connotation that it promotes slacktivism through its use of the media and iconic figures to foster support for a very valuable cause. Many people do view the festival as nothing more than a sort of entertainment that have a great big PR agenda behind it. However, I feel that this festival is still a great way to rally for such a pressing issue as extreme poverty. It gives people the opportunity to commit to a cause because people do invest some sort of their time into attending the festival through the point system, which will inadvertently make them aware of what their time and efforts are being put into and hopefully make them more conscious of the cause. Through this process, the festival is a great way for spreading awareness of the issue and promoting advocacy.
Brandon, I am so happy to read back on my comments and see that you felt the same way as I did and was even able to make the same connection as myself. I also agree with you and Shelby about the structure of the concert, you both mention how fundraising and making people pay for their tickets would be a better path for a concert such as this to take because then it would become a concert striving to bring about change. I definitely think that some sort of structural adjustment should take place in order to make this concert more impactful.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, Casey, I do think that if social media were to act as a catalyst for action then it would not be considered activism. I think when people make a certain #hashtag become viral, and then it becomes impactful because it has raised so much awareness. However, this concert aims to eradicate poverty, and I think the only way to do that is through money and lots of man power. I am not so sure this concert does that.
Lastly, Mohammed, you bring up a good point. I do hope that people would not commit their time if they truly did not want to educate themselves on world poverty, so I suppose the concert is spreading awareness of the issue and promoting advocacy. But I do think that the underlining motives for most people is simply to attend a free concert that has lots of big name celebrities at it. For the celebrities, I think it is more of a tactical PR move to raise awareness about their new music.
I am actually very happy that this blog post was mentioned today in class because for some reason I didn't notice it before and I'm an avid concert goer and I can fully relate to the question at hand. Having gone to over 50 concerts in my life, some of which have been charity based concerts.
ReplyDeleteWarped tour is a concert similar to The Global Citizens Festival in that by going to these concerts, you are told that you are making a difference in one way or another. Normally the lines to enter Warped Tour are extremely long, so Warped gives you a chance to "cut the lines". If you bring non-perishable food items, the bouncers will allow you to cut the line. Also, this past year they asked people to recycle old phones instead of throwing them away and utilizing the parts of the phone like the glass. Now, I don't know how great of an impact this all makes in the efforts to end poverty and reducing waste, but I do know that more often then not, people will bring canned foods and old phones not to just cut the line, but to whole-heartedly donate food to people less fortunate than us and to reduce waste. Warped Tour is a traveling concert having over 50 shows over the summer all across the United States with thousands of people in attendance. Over those 50 dates they collect a lot of food and phones. Warped Tour has worked with a lot of non-profits and have given stats of what they were able to do this past summer. (http://vanswarpedtour.com/nonprofit)
Also, on November 16, 2012 I attended a Hurricane Sandy benefit concert from one of my favorite bands, Taking Back Sunday at the Best Buy Theatre in NYC. Taking Back Sunday is a band from Rockville Center, Long Island and they’re hometown got really destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. So, they decided to hold a benefit concert. Normally tickets for their concerts go for about $30, but this concert went for $50. All proceeds for that one night went to Hurricane Sandy relief. They raised over $10,000, selling out their concert in hours. In the beginning of their concert before the opener band went on, TBS came on the stage to thank everyone for coming out on short notice and showed themselves as people and not famous band members. I think this personal connection they made with the audience really reassured the reason why we were there, especially since most, if not all of us at the concert were affected by Hurricane Sandy one way or another. With the money they raised, they were able to rebuild some destroyed buildings and help clean up the area.
Although I have never personally attended The Global Citizen Festival, I believe these 2 examples show how benefit concerts actually do good and aren’t complete forms of slacktivism. I think benefit concerts are a great thing and I totally think by going you are making a difference. Whether it be small change or not, you are making a change. There is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that we don’t know about that really do make a difference in at least one persons life.
(PS sorry for the long winded comment, I just really love concerts.)
Betty,
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that the Global Citizen Festival is a slacktivist's dream. Over the course a constant question I have asked myself is, "Does doing something that is indirectly beneficial actually beneficial in the long run?" In many cases the answer may be yes. For the Global Citizens Festival I say no. At the same time there is nothing wrong with going there just to listen to the music. If you are an activist and want to go there just for the music then you should reevaluate being an activist.
In an article supporting slacktivism (http://npengage.com/nonprofit-fundraising/41-8-million-raised-far-for-als-maybe-slactivism-isnt-such-bad-thing-after-all/) it says that the ice bucket challenge did its job. But could it's job have been done without pouring a bucket of ice over your head. I would think so. Even though the Global Citizens Festival raised millions of dollars, these millions could have been raised without a concert. What about all the time and effort put into the concert? That could have been time and money well spent somewhere else. It is harder than it see,s to find a happy medium in between helpful and not helpful at all