#indianelection

In the field of politics, the reign of social media has revolutionised the runnings of it. Digital media has a significant role in a democracy in today’s world, keeping the citizens aware about the government, politics and help counter any abuse of power and irresponsibilities. With the help of social media, political parties and leaders put forth their manifestos, schemes, methodology and intentions they have that will be put into practice after campaigns of elections. The use of prominent social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter boosts the presence of political figures and parties. Furthermore, during election campaigns, the social media platforms act as a medium between the political leaders and the citizens at a more personal level than old media/press and news channels. Campaigns and interactions on social media platforms are cost-effective and reach a much broader demographic. India, a democracy is home to a large population and electorate, with several political parties which of late use digital and social media to their advantage.

Original source: https://www.epw.in/social-media-and-elections

Since the 2016 US election campaigns, social media and prominently Facebook, has been under close inspections and have a part of controversies such as data of millions getting shared with research company, Cambridge Analytica and Russian accounts using Facebook to influence voters (Iyengar, 2019). In recent years, voters rely on social media and messaging platforms to gather information and communicate about political parties and leaders and share their preferences and political ideology. Elections in India are not only fumed by the conventional ways of a democracy but is rather a complex set of factors such as religious beliefs, violence, disinformation and misinformation. For example, there are over 200 million users of WhatsApp which is known to be the centre of hoax messages and misinformation (Iyengar, 2019).

Original source: https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/democracy-hacked-growing-influence-of-social-media-and-idea-of-democracy/1568040/

The Prime Minister of India currently, Narendra Modi has one of the biggest Twitter followings for a political figure. He is present on all prominent social media platforms, with a great number of followings. In addition, he also has a television channel called NaMo TV, he still has a LinkedIn profile, a YouTube channel, a Pinterest board, to name a few. This social media strategy has led to his enormous following in the nation and abroad and it makes it easier for him to enforce his combative fascist nationalistic directive (Pal, 2019). Leading him to winning the 2014 elections and becoming the Prime Minister. The Bhartiya Janta party under him were declared victorious under him by the use of digital and social media during campaigns. Since then more parties have incorporated the use of digital media to their advantage and this has transformed the scene of Indian politics and elections. Political parties have shifted their overall election campaign budgets and spendings to digital media. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP had dominated elections advertisements on Google by 80%. The elections generated over 139,000 advertisements on Google and Facebook (Mampatta, 2019). Google, Facebook and other platforms of the companies had made known ads transparency tools before the elections (2019) to make ads funding known (Chaturvedi, 2019). Along with the advertisements, political leaders of India use Twitter on a day to day basis as a means to interact, inform and discuss their views, etc. Especially chief ministers of the 29 states, keep their respective citizens informed and updated about through social media platforms like Twitter. It is to be noted that a greater number of Indians have access to the internet since the 2014 elections. (Iyengar, 2019).

Original source: https://www.indiatvnews.com/fyi/news-top-10-most-followed-leaders-netas-politicians-on-twitter-full-list-529312

With the use of social media, political parties and leaders reach a greater demographic, especially the youth or any other targeted audience. With the steep increase of social media user worldwide, it has become a key tool for political parties to endorse their political ideologies and to generate mass support and Facebook and Twitter being the most widely used social media platforms. From the information on these social media platforms, the public can gain knowledge about the political parties and hence establish their political efficacy (V, PK, MC, 2015). Facebook and WhatsApp also have one of their largest markets in India. With the use of social media, there are political discussions and discourse with the participation of political leaders and the users(public). Therefore it can be said that social media has the power to not only inform but can mould and change people’s preferences and opinions about political parties and leaders.

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References

Chaturvedi, A., 2020. BJP Top Spender On Political Ads On Digital Platforms. The Economic Times. Available at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/elections/lok-sabha/india/bjp-top-spender-on-political-ads-on-digital-platforms/articleshow/69351792.cms

Iyenger, R., 2019. India’s Last Election Saw Social Media Used As A Tool. This One May Make It A Weapon. CNN. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/11/tech/indian-election-whatsapp-twitter-facebook/index.html

Mampatta, S., 2020. BJP Accounted For Over 80% Of Election Advertisements On Google: Report. Business-standard.com. Available at: https://www.business-standard.com/article/technology/bjp-accounted-for-over-80-of-election-advertisements-on-google-report-119052201445_1.html

Pal, J., 2020. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/30/social-media-is-key-battleground-indias-elections-modi-is-currently-king/

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