In the run-up to South Africa’s 2014 election we analyse the social media success of SA political parties and their leaders, using infographics to illustrate who have grown their Twitter and Facebook support base over the past eight months. Does social media success necessarily translate into more votes at the ballot box?
Pop culture personalities and their associated memes are generally pretty banal and fleeting, but the latest Russell Brand polemic deserves a mention, if not for its ludicrousness, then Brand’s accidental position as the obtuse canary in the coal mine of modern politics.
Recently, in a rambling 4,700 word essay for the New Statesman, the British stand-up comic and actor conjured up his own notion of what is wrong with the world and launched a fervent plea for a Spiritual Revolution. Marc gives his take on la revolución de Russell.
We have all amused ourselves by looking at articles and graphics imagining social media as a country, but what about the correlation between social media and political support? With South Africa’s next general election scheduled for a date between April and July next year, it may be an interesting exercise to see which South African political parties could be considered Twitterati and which ones come across as twits in the social media arena.
