‘Blind date' for political rivals? TV show is breaking down barriers.

B. Godihal is one of the thousands of communities in Karnataka that have worked to hold clean elections, stirred by a confluence of awareness campaigns by nongovernmental organizations and rising public frustration with candidates’ broken promises.

In India, videos made about the many social problems are secretly broadcasted in different villages to make people aware of the real problem and also aware of what they can do to fix it. Video Volunteers, an organization that coordinates these video productions, catalyzes community change through transparency and accountability.

In Takoma Park, Maryland, the voting age for local elections is 16. Lowering the age has increased turnout among youth—and studies show that the sooner people start to vote, the more likely they are to be lifetime voters.

India’s television serials are ubiquitous and wildly influential, bringing families of every background together every night. For some producers and screenwriters, that reach comes with responsibility, as they use their medium to fight rape and gendered violence.

In the U.S. the electorate skews white, wealthy, and old because such demographics are more likely to vote. Creating mandatory voting laws would increase voter turnout and thus increase voting equity.

Big money has big lobbyists - but small lobbyists can also bring about big changes. Groups like Results and the Citizens Climate Lobby train ordinary people to approach and make arguments to politicians and journalists.

Colorado has had challenges teaching climate change to elementary and secondary school students because of political divisiveness. Regional advocacy groups and professionals manage to teach climate change through engaging field trips, filmmaking, and outdoor learning.

Voters tend to know a lot about presidential and local candidates but little about those in between. In Sierra Leone, an organization hosted, filmed, and then projected the debates in villages, increasing voters’ knowledge of the candidates and issues, and changing the way people voted.

Arab governments have expended a lot of energy keeping politics of any stripe out of the public sphere. With a few hundred volunteers and hardly any money, an upstart campaign called Beirut Madinati — “Beirut Is My City” — is challenging the status quo, displaying the kind of savvy civic politics promised by the Arab Spring.

By depicting crucial social issues such as infant mortality, domestic abuse, and alcoholism, TV and radio soap operas are being used internationally as a powerful tool for mass behavior change.