Sunday, April 12, 2015

INDIA : SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLITICS




After writing last blog about social media used by govt sector and political parties in India, The following came to my mind regarding social media and politics:

As evident from the US Presidential elections and revolts among the Arab countries, social media is the medium of modern digitalized world. Twitter along with other social media is going to play a vital role in Indian political scenario. These media provides politicians a way to directly communicate with the public. However social media cannot be an alternative for traditional media such as TV, newspaper, radio etc. but can be used along with these channels to harness its full potential. 

As the internet is proliferating among the masses,no politician can undermine the power of social media. After general election in India in 2014, the importance of social media increased many folds. After some initial doubts and oppositions social media has come parallel to the mainstream media. 

The use of Twitter in Indian political world is in gestation stage and a long way is to go for politicians. Particularly, left-wing is not active on social media till now. BJP and INC both are trying hard to leverage upon the social media, while newly formed AAP is also trying to lure the India’s digitalized youth as evident from Delhi election last year in 2014 and back in 2013. It is evident from the data currently BJP and its leader has an edge over the other political parties. Among leaders, Narendra Modi leads the race and along Shashi Tharoor appears among top 15 leaders in terms twitter followers. 

Leaders need to be careful while posting the tweets on Twitter as any negative tweet may lead to controversy that can harm their party as well as their political career. Parties need to adopt some code of conduct when communicating with this new age media. As only two Indian political entities appear in top fifty Indian celebrities on twitter, they need to be more active and creative on it. For the time being, the war on social media has just begun for Indian political leaders and as more and more leaders are joining this we may expect social media to play an important role in shaping the political picture of the country.

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