In Defense of Going Deep in a Viral World: Zeynep Tufekci at TEDxUNC

Zeynep Tufekci, assistant professor at the UNC School of Information and Library Science presented "In Defense of Going Deep in a Viral World." She gave the example of KONY 2012, the viral YouTube video calling for the capture of Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony. She asserted how the story was too simple to be true and how numerous response videos juxtaposed KONY's message. Tufekci made a call to action in watching these videos, like TED Talks, to not "lean back", but lean forward in active participation and understanding.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)