The Swiss School of Latin American Studies (SSLAS) organizes the PhD Workshop “Latin America & Social Media”
Centro Latinoamericano-Suizo de la Universidad de San Gallen (CLS-HSG)
Müller-Friedberg-Strasse 8, CH-9000 St.Gallen
Friday, January 17, 2020 – Room 52-7024 (7th Floor), 13:00-19:00
Saturday, January 18, 2020 – Room 52-7024 (7th Floor), 09:00-14:00
Social media has astutely maneuvered its way into Latin American societies in the last decade and has contributed to the rapid spread of information to mass audiences. According to Statista.com, in April 2019, approximately 81% of the Latin American population aged 15 and overused social media. Given the relevance of this phenomenon, it deserves significant attention from scholars of various disciplines, ranging from the humanities and social sciences to the natural and applied sciences.
This SSLAS Workshop aims to analyze social media from various aspects within the Latin American context. Many questions arise: how is social media a relevant source for research and how is it used and defined in different fields? How are social networking sites replacing more traditional platforms such as TV, radio, and newspapers in the region? How can Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram, inter alia, be used as tools of information, communication, and action? To what extent can they also be effectively used for public relations, corporate communication, humanitarian aid, and even mobilization for political participation? This workshop will bring together perspectives from different academic disciplines to try to answer these questions for a deeper investigation of social media as an evolving phenomenon that continues to spread across our Latin American societies.
MARTÍN OLLER ALONSO 