social media and a campaign

While we're working on our project, trying to make use of social media to make some social change, I've personally experienced something similar.

As many of you might be aware of, the US government is carrying out a census this year. For the question "what's your race," Taiwanese is not an option. So a Taiwanese organization made a film and uploaded it on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcFLfw73O30&feature=player_embedded), encouraging Taiwanese people to fill out the form and check "other Asian" when answering that question as well as to specify "Taiwanese" in the space provided on the form. The film led viewers to check out the organization's website, which, like the film itself, explained why it's important for our race to be identified and how by filling out the form this way we might be able to make a difference.

Then I started to see this film being posted on Taiwanese international students' Facebook walls (actually that's how I found this film). We talked about it when we met in person. It looks like most Taiwanese students are aware of the campaign and many (if not most) are willing to support it. One of my friend who was enthusiastic in politics wrote on her wall, "ppl, please share this film on your wall! With Youtube and Facebook, it becomes so much more likely to raise ppl's awareness. Don't let go of the opportunity!"

I'm not sure what difference we can really make, but I feel that the campaign has had a good start-- I would have ignored the census were it not for this film, and I've heard many of my friends making this similar comment.