by Edward T. Palazzolo
Leveraging the power of Web 2.0 and social networking, Jordan’s Queen Rania launches an online campaign to help curb Arab stereotypes.
Queen Rania has launched an official YouTube page, with an exclusive message on the importance of cross-cultural dialogue in breaking down stereotypes.You can visit Her Majesty’s page at http://youtube.com/QueenRania.
Queen Rania’s goal: For people to know the real Arab world. To get to know the places and faces, the culture and customs of the part of the world she calls home.
Towards that end she makes a call, “Send me your stereotypes”, for people who have heard stereotypes against Arabs, have such stereotypes, or who have questions about the Arab world to share their stories with her. She wants to have a public dialog, through YouTube videos, and address each concern people present. To make it more of a distributed dialog, she asks other YouTubers to help out with the responses.
She started this campaign on 30 March 2008 and will continue it until 12 August 2008. As of 3 April, her video has been viewed over 635,000 times and has received over 1,100 comments from viewers.
