[Air-L] Working to Collate a List of Global South Politicians on Twitter -- Advice and Suggestions Appreciated!

[A'Ndre Gonawela]

Hello all,

I am an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan, and I am currently working on a research project in which I collate a list of politicians in the Global South who are active on Twitter. I was hoping that I would be able to draw upon the advice/knowledge within this community regarding politicians in the Global South who have used Twitter as a communications medium, suggestions for additions to the list, and/or advice regarding a direction I could take in which I could effectively and efficiently collect such data.

I have already looked at Twiplomacy and have attempted to get at least the Head of State, Head of Government, and a major opposition leader for each of the countries in question. If you were to take a look at the list as it is now (linked here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L9O4y804L5fK038d0cUfUx-w9OMVi9Ug8ZEzyDUQjL4/edit?usp=sharing <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L9O4y804L5fK038d0cUfUx-w9OMVi9Ug8ZEzyDUQjL4/edit?usp=sharing>), you would see that I have already obtained a listing of 50 Indian politicians and 50 Nigerian politicians. My ambitious idea is to get a similar number of entries for the other countries in the list (for example Kuwait, South Africa, etc.). 

However, since i’m not familiar with a number of the political situations in each of the countries, and knowing that there are many prominent political figures who do not necessarily have a governmental or elected position, I was hoping to get the larger community’s advice and inputs (such as suggestions on key politicians to add to the list) regarding this project.

Moreover, for everyone’s convenience, I have also created a Google Form (Linked here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfhkD4nUOf1EMB-WwHKyiGaOknEqtjdbkXxbj3NxMeu9NYn1g/viewform?usp=sf_link <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfhkD4nUOf1EMB-WwHKyiGaOknEqtjdbkXxbj3NxMeu9NYn1g/viewform?usp=sf_link>) in which you could provide your suggestions regarding which politicians I might be missing from this list.

I appreciate everyone’s assistance regarding this!

Thank you,
A’ndre Gonawela