Use of New Media in Indian Political Campaigning System

2017

Social media is a highly influential and powerful medium of communication in today's world. The medium has changed the structure and roots of contemporary political communication (Tenhunen & Karvelyte, 2014). Social media gives platform to the politicians and political parties to interact and exchange information to their voters (audience). Social networking sites are upgrading the methods and structures of political communication from traditional to digital. This article reviews various studies conducted by authors on social media use in political communication in the Indian scenario. Research articles were collected by Google search using the key words social media, political communication, India, and research and the first ten pages that the search threw up were considered. From that repository, relevant articles published during the time frame of 2014 – 2016 were selected and reviewed.

Humanities and Social Sciences Reviews, 2019

Purpose of the study: The advent of digital media along with the recent boom of smartphones has changed the atlas of communication. The ubiquity of Social media has led to its increased use in all aspects of communication as against conventional media. Politics is not an exception. The role of social media in political discourses, engagement, and mobilization is widely realized and practiced and has become an important mode of political communication in India. In this paper, we explore the current academic corpus on political communication in the context of social media.

AMITESH PUBLISHER & COMPANY, 2024

The evolution of social media has explicitly transformed the perspective of Indian politics, creating both opportunities and challenges that somehow reshaped political communication, engagement, and mobilization. Social media has democratized information dissemination, allowing political actors to bypass traditional media and directly engage with the electorate. It has also facilitated grassroots mobilization, enabled real-time feedback, and fostered new forms of political participation, particularly among the youth. The paper examines these issues within the context of Indian elections, focusing on case studies that illustrate both the pros and cons effects of social media on democratic procedures. Moreover, it discusses the implications of social media for political transparency, accountability, and the future of electoral politics in India. The study concludes by offering policy recommendations to mitigate the risks associated with social media while maximizing its potential to enhance democratic governance in India.

Early 1980's dominated the Indian television scenario and news became a part and parcel of prime time viewing in almost all the households. It broadcasted important speeches and talks with political personality and people in power position. The newscaster also became programme hosts and sound byte was substantiated with feature news or chat show were journalist could question key personalities on screen. This phenomenon continued even after LPG, in fact it became even more assertive with MNC coming and newer news channels becoming part of the media business. The relation between mass media and politics became all about what the nation wants to know and who advocates the devilThere has been a paradigm shift in the way the relationship between politicians and media has evolved. The television-politics relationship though continues to be strong in terms of ownership pattern and appointment of key positions in media houses, digital media is giving a tough competition to this model of political communication. India has seen a new wave of communication in 'Modi Era'. The prime minister of India as well as the cabinet ministers have tried to bridge the gap between people and leaders using social media so much so that it appears that the current opposition party leaders are in a race to challenge one of the most followed personality on social media. This paper shall try to look at two of the Indian politicians Narendra Modi and Shashi Tharoor, who are actively followed on the social networking site and see how digital media becomes crucial for political communication keeping in mind the framework given by Michael Gurevitch et al. This paper shall also try to address some of the key suggestions given by Michael Gurevitch and see if the same could be applied to Indian political communication and social media scenario. Political Communication: Political communication deals actively with the confluence of political actions and the media. This relationship between the two elements is highly important due to the dependency of politicians to establish their reputation with the public

International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering, 2019

the use of social media has become a new strategy for the political parties during election campaign. The social media is playing a significant role in changing people’s perception towards politics, politicians and modes of political participation. The advent of budget smart phones and affordable data packages has given greater scope for people to voice their opinion on social and political issues. With accounts in every social media platforms, the political parties and their leaders are using it as a new space to mobilize people. Since 2014 Lok Sabha election, the social media is playing a pro-active role in deciding which party will win the election. While this has led to increased speed of spread of information and news, it has also left the ordinary people vulnerable to fake news and exposed them to ‘hate speech’. One hand, the social media is making Indian democracy more inclusive thereby giving citizens the space to express their opinion. On the other hand, it is also creating...

Over the last ten years social media has gained the reputation of being a popular choice of communication among people. Not only in advanced countries like US and UK, but developing countries like India has become one of the largest users of social media. Today, India has overtaken US (which ranks 2 nd to India) in terms of Facebook users in the world followed by Brazil and Indonesia. Everyday there are millions of people who are joining these social media sites and are sharing opinions on issues of social, political and economic importance. These discussions sometime take the face of activism, sometimes social protest, in some cases, change in laws of the country and sometimes have even lead to the uprootment of the ruling government. If we look at the impact social media had over the political decision making of a country, we will find that every major country around the world to some extent or the other have been effected by it. For example, the 2008 US Presidential Election, when Barack Obama became the President for the first time (second time was in 2012), had been termed by many critics as a win by social media. It is now a known fact that Barack Obama used social media to its full potential. In fact, the 2008 US Presidential Election was the first example of how social media can be used to garner popular votes and instigate popular sentiments. After the hugely successful social media campaigns of the 2008 Election, came Arab Spring in 2011. Social Media played a central role in shaping political debates in the Arab Spring. India being one of the largest countries in the world and having a large young population, millions of whom are present in social media platforms, permeates ideas and thoughts among themselves. The youth of India is hooked into social media. Not only the youth, but the average Indian too is now connected through social media and these number of users are growing with each passing day. Thus to reach this population and to connect with people, political parties in India too are taking the social media route. Politicial Communication in India is fast changing due to the advent of social media. In 2014, the BJP garnered popular sentiments not only through its social media campaigns but also its candidate for Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi himself was very active in social media. His tweets and selfies became very popular among the youth. This paper tries to study this trend in political communication especially in the context of election campaigns in India. It also tries to understand how social media sets the agenda for election campaigns and evokes popular emotions and sentiments among people.

Social media developing opportunities to politicians for connecting and managing relationship with new and prospect voters who are actively using this new medium. This paper is based on extensive literature review of previous research paper and reports. The main objective of the paper is to identifying social media promotional characteristics used by political parties and leaders for promoting their election campaign. After analyzing reports and election campaign of different parties, it was found that political parties specially Bhartiya Janta Party more emphasized on social media for election campaigning.

isara solutions, 2022

Social media usage has evolved into a new tactic for political parties during election campaign. The social media has a big part to play in how people view politics, politicians, and ways to get involved in politics. The introduction of inexpensive smart phones and data plans has increased people's ability to express their opinions on social and political concerns. Political parties and their leaders are adopting social media, where they have accounts on all major platforms, as a new forum for mobilizing people. Since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, social media has taken an active position in predicting which party will prevail. While this has accelerated the spread of information and news, it has also exposed the general public to 'hate speech' and made them susceptible to fake news. On the one hand, social media is expanding India's democratic space and enabling citizens to voice their opinions. On the other hand, by spreading misinformation and false information, it is also causing a gap between various populations. Therefore, using it should be subject to some limitations. A democracy may become chaotic and unstable as a result of the overuse. Due to the widespread use of social media platforms, research into the potential effects on public opinion and voting behavior is important. The goal of the current study is to determine how social media is used in India's electoral politics.

Journal of Media and Social Development, 2014

The 2014 general elections in India were significant for a number of reasons, most significantly was the widespread use of social media by most parties in their campaigns. This essay is not an analysis of the effectiveness of social media used by political parties in the campaign rather it is the examination of the social media campaign used by the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) for the national elections in India in 2014 and how this has created an effective ‘public’, as defined by Michael Warner. The essay will examine online platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the BJPs community organizing website – Mission272+ to demonstrate this.

GLOBAL JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY STUDIES, 2015

In the fast changing world media too has evolved especially in the last five years and technology undoubtedly has been the driving force that is influencing people’s live manifold. Gone are the days when Doordarshan and Radio along with print were the only source of information for the people of India. Internet boom has perpetually changed the media scenario as well as the political landscape. With the advent of Facebook that has been capturing the imagination of the net savvy since its inception has lately been receiving stiff competition from Twitter, WhatsApp and Blogs to name the few. Therefore, needless to say that Indian political class in order to ensure wider reach and simultaneously to keep a tab on the technology driven nation has to go through metamorphosis and hence, no surprise that social media is increasingly becoming the most preferred platform for the Indian politicians to establish unswerving communication with the mango people. Top guns of BJP like Sushma Swaraj and Narendra Modi are the leading torches whose comments on Twitter and Facebook Create ripples and Kapil Sibbal and Shashi Tharoor of INC are also not lagging behind in terms of followers online. Consequently, other regional party leaders have also joined the social media bandwagon. According to the latest estimates the active Internet users in India has already touched 205 million mark; a substantial 40 percent increase from the corresponding year. According to another study, by the end of 2014, Internet user’s base in India will reach 243 million marks. Interestingly, in terms of user base rural pockets outshined the Internet users in the urban pockets. The aforesaid figures paint a very rosy picture that people of India are increasingly becoming net junkies and hence, no wonder that why Indian political class is going the Internet route. Unarguably, Print media dominated the Indian political scenario for the longest time but with satellite channels making their foray into the entertainment scene the state of affairs changed and of late social media has been fast becoming the flavor of the season. Indian Politicians who for the longest time were reluctant to adapt to the changes finally succumbed to the changing times to stay relevant in the mainstream politics and moreover to garner votes and trust of the voters who plausibly want to strike direct channel of communication before casting their votes. BJP and INC and other national parties acknowledging the potential of the media in reaching out to the youngsters who without commotion is the future of the country have been leaving no stone unturned to grab the attention of the tech savvy voters and therefore, have dedicated teams of technocrats, strategists and content developers who work 24X7 online to keep their respective parties ahead in the game. In the light of the fact, it’s not hyperbole to say that in coming years also social media would unequivocally rule the roost.