Politicians and Social Media in the Global South

Saturday, April 14th, 2018
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
North Quad, Space 2435
105 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

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In the last decade, politicians in various parts of the world have invested in social media campaigns, including in settings where a relatively small proportion of the voting public is actually online. Leaders may use social media for a range of reasons including to actively court constituents, to present a narrative on their political program to the international community, or to use the affordances of social media to frame the agenda on a specific issue.

The April 2018 Workshop at UMSI brought together a mix of scholars, social media professionals, commentators, and politicians from around the world to highlight ways some of the strategies of various politicians have engaged with social media online. This page offers an open archive of all the talks at the event.

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Workshop Program

9:00AM—Introduction, Key issues in Political Social Media Studies in the Global South

9:15AM—Keynote Speaker

Social Media and Contemporary Politic(ian)s in (part of) the Global South

Merlyna Lim, Carleton University

10:30AM—Session 1: Politicians Performing Online
Chair: Omolade Adunbi, University of Michigan

Digital Campaign? The use of Twitter in Presidential campaign in Kenya’s 2017 Elections
Job Mwaura, University of the Witswatersrand

Running online vs fighting at the polls: The conundrums of Nigerian social media campaigns
Dayo Aiyetan, International Center for Investigative Reporting, Udit Thawani,
University of Michigan

Whom do politicians follow on Twitter?
Samarth Bansal, Hindustan Times
Anustubh Agnihotri, The University of California at Berkeley
Rahul Verma, The University of California at Berkeley

12:00PM—Break

1:15PM—Session 2: Stakeholders and Agenda Setting
Chair: Ceren Budak, University of Michigan

Populism and right-wing movements in the Global South: the digital strategy of Movimento Brasil Livre
Danniel Gobbi, University of Brasilia

On-The-Ground with Political Activists: Accounts from Syria, Tunisia and Palestine
Krüger, Maximilian, University of Siegen

Social Media in Bangladeshi Politics: The Ugly, The Zombies, & The Jedi Knights
Faheem Hussain, Stony Brook University

Text Mining Methods for Political Social Media Studies
Sunandan Chakraborty, Indiana University

3:15PM—Break

3:30PM—Panel: The Mechanics of Social Media Outreach
Moderator: Ram Mahalingam, University of Michigan

Facebook and Elections
Katie Harbath, Facebook

Political Campaign Management in India
Ankit Lal, Aam Aadmi Party, India

Computational Approaches to Studying Public Officials on Social Media
Libby Hemphill, University of Michigan

5:00PM—Open Discussion on Building an Interdisciplinary Community on Political
Social Media

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Organizers:
Joyojeet Pal, School of Information, University of Michigan
Ceren Budak, School of Information, University of Michigan
Ram Mahalingam, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan
Daniel Romero, School of Information, University of Michigan
Administration Lead Planner: Kayla Carucci, University of Michigan

Sponsored by
The University of Michigan International Institute Enterprise Fund
The University of Michigan School of Information
The University of Michigan Department of Communications
The University of Michigan Center for South Asian Studies
The University of Michigan African Studies Center
The University of Michigan Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies