State represents a social phenomenon which is constantly changing - just like all political actors. The direction of that evolution is determined by the development and current state of the art in technological domain. That explains how the rise of social media and new ICTs has shaped the contemporary political communication. This paper sheds light on the manner in which digital tools are exploited in an unpredictable social ambience which is characterized by numerous political crises. Special attention has been given to the phenomenon of digital astroturfing and political disinformation trends in Venezuela and Brazil. We have found that the dynamic technological development combined with the use of political bots has been creating the potential for fake news, thus impacting election processes and endangering democracy. Therefore, these phenomena need further scientific examination.

The Annual Attitude Examination Survey consisting of 366 questions was deployed on nationally representative sample in Serbia to get 2608 responses on the Oxford Happiness Inventory and Multiple Lickert scale questions concerning attitudes, fears, media use and closeness of different social categories to the participants. Research results confirm all hypotheses. Quantity of television use is negatively correlated to happiness. As for the quality of newspapers use, those consuming contents such as culture, sports and IT are happier than others. When looking at television use, individuals that prefer programs such as cartoons, culture, music, fashion, science, IT and sports are happier than others. This is the first research examining relationship of happiness and quality of media use. Future research should encompass data from online social networks in order to see how positive and negative emotions of media users are related to media content they are exposed to.