Interactive Computer Mediated Technology: Social Media and Indian Politics
Bapukan Saikia
Bapukan Saikia, Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Political Science, Assam Uiversity, Silchar, India.
Manuscript received on 28 August 2019. | Revised Manuscript received on 09 September 2019. | Manuscript published on 30 September 2019. | PP: 1043-1046 | Volume-8 Issue-11, September 2019. | Retrieval Number: J11070881019/2019©BEIESP | DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.J1107.0981119
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: Nowadays social media become the battleground for political parties in India. It becomes an essential part of campaigning. The political parties form their own social media teams and they generate propagating content such as cartoons, memes etc. This field has also become a tool for common people to voice their concern. With the increasing usage of smartphones use of social media are also growing rapidly. Media plays the most important role in a Democracy and it keeps the Government active. With the advent of social media including Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube etc. dramatically changed the way campaigns are run in Politics. Indians are rated as one of the most active social media users in the world. In India the 16th Lok Sabha election held in 2014 we saw the new trend in Indian politics. Social media played a proactive role in deciding which party wins the most seats. The Internet in India is offering opportunities for people to participate in interactive political social media campaigns and become political activists. Sometimes offensive online behavior on social media pages poses potential threats to its users. There are sometimes misunderstandings in comments. It will not be very effective using it as a mere campaign tool. But if used as a platform to share the latest decisions made by the Government and used effectively for active citizen engagement, social media will show positive results for future Indian elections. Social media have also become one of the important tools for nearly all of the world’s political movements. It can be a potent weapon to spread one’s ideology, or at least get it to reach more ears. Social media made democracy more inclusive from which nothing can be hidden.
Keywords: Campaign, Democracy, Media, Politics
Scope of the Article: Marketing and Social Sciences