Use and Rise of Social media as Election Campaign medium in India

 Use and Rise of Social media as Election Campaign medium in India

 

Abstract

 

Jestin Joy

St Thomas College Of Teacher Education pala

 

In Indian election system social media has becoming an important medium in campaign. These new forms of media is assume as a central role in attracting voters and especially the new generation of young adults. Social media helps political parties and candidates in more effectively reach large number of voters in a short amount of time. Unlike traditional media social media allow politician to actively engage with their potential voters. Social media allows political parties and candidates to share their beliefs; goals and accomplishments directly with voters, making them feel more directly involved with the campaign. Social media allows candidates to give their supporters a behind-the scenes view of their campaign and more easily track engagement. These new forms of media also facilitate the collection of news most relevant to crucial target groups. The increases in the use and rise of social media are shown as significant and it is essential to do research.

Introduction

In recent years, social media have become an integral part of political communications during election campaigns. Since the Internet age began, communication has evolved from social media to chat rooms and instant messaging. Social media are the most recent and rapidly growing phenomenon in the context of Internet Communication. During the 2014 parliamentary general election in India all political parties and candidates have extensively utilized social media in order to mobilize voters. The recent explosive growth and popularity in use of social media drew a great deal of attention from political communication researchers. Of particular interest is to explore the political impact of social media as a new mean that helps people obtain political information as well as interact with other people on the Web. The structure of a social media very much different form classical media, it allow people to

communicate news and information in very different way. Social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube,WhatsApp,Instagram and other social networks are now considered as politically transformative communication technologies as classical media such as newspaper, radio and television. There are prediction that social media will transform democracy allowing citizens and

politician to communicate, connect and interact in ways never before. Increasingly, politician and elected officials are realizing the power of social media for communicating political information and interacting with citizens.Social Media has rapidly grown in importance as a forum for political activism in its different forms.

Social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube provide new ways

 

to stimulate citizen engagement in political life, where elections and electoral campaigns have a central role. Personal communication via social media brings politicians and parties closer to their potential voters. It allows politicians to communicate faster and reach citizens in a more targeted manner and vice versa, without the intermediate role of mass media. Reactions, feedback, conversations and debates are generated online as well as support and participation for offline events. Messages posted to personal networks are multiplied when shared, which allow new audiences to be reached.

As a successive new form of communication have come into being, then

the accessible worldwide system of interconnected network called the Internet is publically accessible worldwide, ordinary people have enjoying an expanded quality, range, and choice of entertainment and information content through new communication forms. New forms of communication media play a critical role in building and sustaining, democracies, societies, and economics around the world.

Social media provide citizens with the information necessary to make informed socio-economicand political choices. These new forms of media give voice to women, youths, and marginalized groups, along with their opinions. This new forms communication has more opportunities than the classical mass media. Much of

those derives from the new media are a very open and accessible medium. The new medium lays open an incalculable choice of information. Internet has proven to be one of the most dynamic phenomena in modern times.According to data estimations calculated by the Atlas VPN research team, India is set to reach 1 billion internet users by the year 2025. As of 2020 YTD, there are over 687.6 million internet users in India.Internet penetration in India reached 50% at the start of 2020. Meaning, already half of the population in India uses the internet. This is a rather fast jump, looking at the fact that in 2015, only 19% of Indian population was actively using the internet at 243 million users.Despite the fact that India’s internet penetration is only 50%, it is already the second-largest internet user base in the world, only behind China.

Election system in India

India is a socialist, secular, democratic republic and largest democracy in the world. The modern Indian nation state came into existence on 15th August 1947. India is a constitutional democracy with a parliamentary system of government, and at the heart of the system lays a commitment to hold regular, free and fair election. These elections determine the composition of the government; the membership of the two houses of parliament, and the state and union territory legislative assemblies.

Presidency and Vice-Presidency is the highest body and structure of the system.

Conduct of general elections in India for a

electing of the people representative involves management of the largest event in the world. The electorate exceeds more than 800 million, voting in approximately more than 800,000 polling station across the nation widely varying geographic and

 

different climate zones, located in snow-clad mountains, the deserts and sparsely populated areas.The constitution of India has vested, in the election commission, the superintendence, direction and control of the entire

process in time to time. For the conduct of elections to parliament and state assemblies and to the office of the president and vice president of India is on very challenging issues in India. The election commission can, justifiably, take pride in having successfully conducted the electoral exercise to the satisfaction of all stake holder and participants, namely political parties and candidates and the electorate. The country‟s election is involved complex political, mobilization, and organizational logistics that remain unparalleled in globe. An election of India is a contest between different candidates form various

parties out of which the voters elect one as their representative. There may also be independent candidates taking part in the election. Delimitation of constituencies, preparation of voters‟ list, filing of nomination of papers, scrutiny of nomination papers and withdrawals, election campaigns, voting and counting of votes and declaration of result are the procedures of the Indian election system. The elections campaign by various candidates and political parties,Public rallies, posters, pamphlets distribution, processions, door to door campaigns, and using mass media advertisement and more to reach voters.

Social media usage in India

Social media in India have become increasingly popular components of our younger generation‟s lives in today‟s modern society. It provides for new generation to communicate, exchange message, share knowledge, and interact with each other regardless of their distance that separates them. The social media links people across the nation regardless of differences and geographical boundaries. The compression of time and space, the convergence of media and the effects of globalization have made the nation into a more interactive. New generation are feeling more comfortable in use and access of social

media for communicating and building relationships through online. The middle age group and adults are very comfortable in use of this technology because they are growing with technological era. The younger generation may not recall how or when theylearned to use a computer or access the Internet; for as long as they can remember, those tools were always there. Young people particularly are quick to use the new technology in ways which increasingly blur the boundaries‟ between their online and offline activities. Contemporary media are also developed rapidly as technology changes with new communication technological dimensions and features. The new generations of youths with in the country, who are growing along with new communication technologies are emerging as “new generation.”Social media adoption among Internet users in India is around 84% today. This translates to around 110 million social

network users in India. The four main social media giants of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google have played major role in 2014 parliamentary general election

 

in India, with political parties and candidates competing with each other in breaking the news, spreading their message through these outlets in addition to those via classical media. Facebook user growth will come faster from Asia-Pacific, where adoption rates in India, Indonesia and Japan far exceed the worldwide average growth of 28.2% in 2013. The Middle East, Africa and Latin America will also post higher than average growth rates going forward. Worldwide social network advertisement revenues are still going strong and set to grow nearly 54% this year, according to several estimates.The current set of web users in growing digital nations like India. While Male Internet penetration is around 10.6% of the overall population, while women‟s and girls‟ Internet penetration in India is around 9.8 % of total population today. Out of the total online population of Internet users in India around 52% males and 48% females use social networking sites in India.Social media users in India are very young compared to the rest of the other nations in the world. Nearly 75% of social

media users in India are under the age of below 35 years and nearly half of them are under 25 years of age. These usage patterns show that the expansion, adaptability and future prospects of the new media in India. Searching information, social networking, e-mail are the top most for the users to use social media in their day- today activities in India. Nearly more than 84% online audience will use social networks for different purpose of communication and other online activities. It is clearly shows that the young generation is leading the contemporary media revolution in India. The growth and use of social

media by younger generation in India for the purpose of their Information and entertainment is leading and going by the current trend.

Active social media users in India

With the deep penetration of internet connectivity among people, the number of social media users in India have been growing constantly. The Indian government- sponsored Digital India initiative has also contributed greatly to this growth. The year 2020, which came under the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic, saw much resort to social media to gather information or to express themselves and several new topics and conversations began trending on social media in India. As social media users began to rise, so did digital ad spends. Data reveals that this growth and different

trends on social media in India are poised to continue.

The number of internet users had increased over the years in rural as well as urban areas.The majority of India’s internet users are mobile phone internet users, who take advantage of cheap alternatives to expensive broadband/ Wi-Fi connections that require PC, laptop, and other equipment. Indian mobile data users consume 11 gigabits (GB) of data each month on average, India is the highest globally, ahead of markets like China, the US, France, South Korea, Japan, Germany, and Spain. The

 

overall data traffic in India increased by 47% in 2019 driven by continued 4G consumption. 4G constituted 96% of the total data traffic consumed across the country while 3G data traffic registered its highest-ever decline of 30%. Indians have

1.2 billion mobile phone subscriptions.

Indians now download more apps than residents of any other country – over 19 billion apps were downloaded by Indian users in 2019, resulting in a 195 % growth over 2016 data.The average Indian social media user spends 17 hours on the platforms each week, more than social media users in China and the United States. Indian internet users are fond of social media. In 2021, it is estimated that there will be around 448 million social network users in India, a significant increase from 2019 where it figures at 351 million. Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the country. There are about 270 million Facebook users in India as 2019, placing India as the country with the largest Facebook user base in the world.

Social media use for political mobilization

Social media are Internet sites where people interact freely, sharing and discussing information about each other and their lives, using a multimedia mix of personal words, pictures, video and audio. At these web sites, individuals and groups create and exchange content and engage in person-to-person conversations. The users of social media will appear in many forms

including blogs and micro blogs, forums and message boards, social networks, wikis, virtual worlds, asocial bookmarking, tagging and news. In recent years, we have witness the exponential growth of social media around the world. Today social media such as Facebook, Twitter and other social network sites are driving new forms of social interaction, dialogue, exchange and collaboration. Social media enables users to swap ideas, to post updates and comments, or to participate in activities and events, while sharing their wider interests. Social media are now used for a host of different reasons by various user communities. Social media are increasingly blurring the boundaries between work and play. And the online tracking and dissemination of news and views over social media mean that people may now continue to live in a media world long after the end of their working day.Social media outlets are essential to politicians and political parties, enabling them to gain support, encourage participation

and have an open and continuous dialogue. Most importantly social media allows the highly motivated people to create a context more easily in which the barely motivated people can be effective without having to become activists themselves, creating an environment perfect for politicians to utilize. The emerging social media and its public and political influence

 

have begun to transform the political process and campaign tactics. Politicians are now using social media and the Internet and in turn are permitting a new arena of grassroots politics. Voters no longer make decisions solely based on information available through traditional media and instead seek out additional knowledge and in some cases additional means of activism, using their computers and mobile devices. Some of the studies have also found that mass media use and social media use is positively correlated to an individual‟s voting behavior. Essentially, the more look to mass media and social media for information, the more likely citizens are to vote.

Ultimately social media simplifies word of mouth and facilitates collaboration in a cost-effective and impactful fashion and as research points out, is reaching individuals who are more

likely to be motivated to actively participate in the political process.

Several studies have found that how Internet or social media influences people‟s political involvement. Many scholars and observers have illustrated political involvement of social media users in comparison to those of the non-users.

However, the studies have reported somewhat mixed or inconsistent results. Many studies have found that Internet users are more politically interested and active than average, showed that Internet users report high levels of political efficacy, more politically knowledgeable and more likely to seek out information about politics than non-users. Other studies of the relationship between the Internet and political involvement reports different results, those who visit political websites tend to be interested in campaign news and were likely to vote for interested candidate.As the social media have become a primary source of political news and information, the different gains model offers good

offers a good opportunity to examine the democratic potential of the Internet that allows people to obtain a wide range of political information and communicate with other in more effective and efficient ways. The unique nature of the social

media is that it integrates several different modes of traditional mass media use and interpersonal communication. In this regard, it is of particular importance to note that the social media can viewed as an effective discussion place in which

ordinary people can access a wide range of information and communicate with other people to share the common topics. Several scholars have argued that cyber space can be conceptualized as a discursive of speaking space in which people can freely express their voices. People are using social media to have political information and to talk with others as well.

Social media and 2019 Parliament election

In line with the global trend, social media has been increasingly used by Indian politicians for routine political communication to directly connect with their supporters. However, unethical practices online by political actors have led to a spike in violence and affected decision-making on the national security front.

Social media played a prominent role during the 2019 Indian general elections as political parties, politicians, and supporters (real or otherwise) used it extensively for

 

political campaigning and communication. Following the global trend, social media has been increasingly used by Indian political actors for routine political communication between elections to provide unmediated and direct communication to connect leaders and citizenry, and to re-energise the political landscape in the country. While the recent general election has provided the most visible manifestations of this shift, social media platforms have been integrated into routinised political communication since the 2014 general elections, which swept the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power. This shift builds on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP’s extensive use of social media in the run-up to the 2014 elections and during his first term in office.

Using social media to bypass traditional media and ignore critics, Modi has developed a distinct style of political communication that is interactive and continuous. His successful use of social media for political agenda building and policy crowdsourcing and publicity is evident in pan-India campaigns such as Swacch Bharat (Clean India) (Rodrigues and Niemann 2017) and the recently- launched Fit India Movement, a nationwide campaign, which encourages citizens to take up physical activity and sports in their daily lives. It was Modi’s phenomenal success in the 2014 general election that made other political actors in India to sit up and take notice of the game-changing nature of social media. With other political parties jumping on the social media bandwagon, the landscape of political communication in India has never been so heterogeneous, inclusive, fragmented, energetic, chaotic, creative, and equally polarising at the same time.in the 16th Lok Sabha elections political parties like Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and Indian National Congress (INC) seek suggestions from the Social Media users for their election manifestoes, but people’s participation was limited.At present BJP has 10.7 million followers on Twitter, INC has 4.96 million followers and AAP has 4.79 million followers. Similarly, in Facebook BJP has 15.68 million people following, INC has 5.25 million people following and AAP has

3.56 million people following. As far as the politicians are concerned, our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is at the top with 46.36 million followers in the twitter,

14.62 million followers for Arvind Kejriwal and 8.92 million followers for Rahul Gandhi. In the case of Facebook Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has 43.04 million people following, Arvind Kejriwal has 7 million people following and Rahul Gandhi has 2.54 million people following. Globally, it is Ex President of United States of America Barack Obama, the first politician to successfully used social media during his two continuous election campaigns (2008 and 2012) respectively.

Conclusion

People in India are enjoying the highest level of Internet connection and online information is perceived as more credible and reliable than traditional media sources. India isranked in 3rd with regard to use of social networks in the world.

Therefore,India is an interesting place where we can examine the political influence of newly emerging communication forms like social media.Signifying the importance

 

of social media for political campaigning in 16th parliament general election political parties and

candidates have relied heavily on social media such as social media and social networks to engage voters, recruit campaign

volunteers and raise some extent campaign funds also, the 17 th election also showed same.The campaign brought the spotlight on the importance of using social media in new-age political campaigning by utilizing various forms of social media and new media to reach new target population. This social media was incredibly successful a reaching the younger population while helping all population to organize and promote action. The last two parliament general elections is the witness of the effect of web media use and adoption and effects.

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