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Latin American presidents are major social media fans. The presidents of Venezuela and Ecuador, in particular, are among the world’s most active politicians on Twitter, replying rapid-fire to constituents' tweets, posting their opinions and attacking opponents – often including critical citizens.
Presidents who troll on Twitter might be an amusing curiosity if they didn’t so clearly expose the inability of some weak Latin American democracies to actually give people what they need, writes Miguel Angel Latouche in the fourth instalment of our series on politics in the age of social media.
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Ecuador’s Rafeal Correa is one of the wold’s top politician-tweeters.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
Miguel Angel Latouche, Universidad Central de Venezuela
When leaders of weak democracies use social media to connect with their constituents, people feel heard. But Twitter responses won't give citizens what they need.
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Politics + Society
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Ramón Andrés Feenstra, Universitat Jaume I; Andreu Casero-Ripolles, Universitat Jaume I; John Keane, University of Sydney; Simon Tormey, University of Sydney
Spain has been transformed into a democratic laboratory, where the participation and use of new communication strategies are ready for experimentation and innovation.
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Environment + Energy
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Esther Ndumi Ngumbi, Auburn University
Urban consumers in Africa are rapidly growing and they are demanding high quality, pesticide free food.
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Arts + Culture
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Loïc Trégourès, Université de Lille 2 - Université de Lille
In Kosovo's long struggle to gain international recognition of its statehood, football has helped the country achieve major goals.
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Business + Economy
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Chris Doucouliagos, Deakin University
Analysis shows that rising inequality over the past 20 years makes it harder to increase taxes and makes citizens less willing to pay them.
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