From Twitter to Facebook

In my previous posts, that explored college tuition costs over social media, I focused on Twitter for engagement purposes and while I have found various resources and have posted extensively, I felt that it was time to switch gears. Through my Twitter feed, I discovered the hashtag #MillionStudentMarch and learned about an active campaign that is protesting high tuition costs. They have a clear mission which I found to be a breath of fresh air after struggling to find current discussion in social media. The goals of the campaign according to their Twitter bio are as follows: “STUDENTS DEMAND: 1. Tuition-free college, 2. Cancellation of all student debt, and 3. $15 minimum wage for all campus workers!” With that in mind, the Million Student March became my main focus this week.

The Million Student March is a movement happening at over 115 campuses across the country this Thursday, November 12th. Due to the urgency of the upcoming event, I explored both Twitter and Facebook to find the most active participants and found that Facebook was more up to date and responsive. The main page for the national campaign is active, but the only acknowledgment that I received from them was a like on a comment that I made on one of their posts. Hoping for more responsiveness, I found that the closest march to me would be at UC Santa Barbara and explored their event page to find that they post on a daily basis and tended to respond to those who seek to engage.

Borrowing from a classmate’s strategy which seemed to work well for her, (thanks Marina!) I wrote a post that included an introduction of myself, my research and an open-ended question I crossed my fingers and waited. Lo and behold, I finally received a response! After weeks of trying to engage, it was a very exciting moment for me to hear back from one of the organizers of the event. Below is my exchange with Kyle to date:

I had hopes to actually attend the march but it not only conflicts with class times but I’m in need of transportation to get there. I do expect that even if I can’t attend, there will be an increase in talk on tuition in the aftermath of the country-wide marches so I’m looking forward to that being reflected in my feeds in the coming week or so.

Until next time,

MGH

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