{"id":880,"date":"2017-04-19T09:35:40","date_gmt":"2017-04-19T09:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artattackk.com\/blogs\/?post_type=socialmedia&p=880"},"modified":"2024-04-15T11:50:21","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T11:50:21","slug":"the-increasing-footprint-of-social-media-in-polity-and-other-spheres","status":"publish","type":"socialmedia","link":"https:\/\/artattackk.com\/blogs\/social-media\/the-increasing-footprint-of-social-media-in-polity-and-other-spheres\/","title":{"rendered":"THE INCREASING FOOTPRINT OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN POLITY AND OTHER SPHERES"},"content":{"rendered":"

Technology is a great leveler for it brings disparate individuals or groups that are divided by age, sex, region,
\nlanguage, caste and creed, on an even keel. The phenomenal growth in the spread of Internet, computers and smartphones
\nhas created a churning of sorts in the vast demographics that are spread across the world. And India being home to one
\nof the largest educated middle classes, figures prominently in this churning. As
\n\t\tdemocracy strikes deep roots in India, a new aspirational class has emerged that envisions of a nation which is
\n\t\tbetter governed and focused on improving the lives of its people.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

This tech savvy aspirational class mostly in the age group of 18-35 has brought about a paradigm shift in how the media
\nis perceived and used as a medium in disseminating or gathering information. The new media that has become the most
\nsought after platform for this age group is none other than the social media.<\/p>\n

What is Social Media?<\/strong>
\nThanks to the development<\/a><\/strong> of cloud or the
\nInternet, portals such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter or Reddit have become easily accessible, wherein by
\njust opening an account one can be a part of this vast multitude of people having a worldwide footprint. This vast
\nmultitude that runs into billions uses these platforms in many a ways, mostly to share information about them. The
\ninstant sharing nature of these platforms is what has drawn people in droves. Moreover, as social media is
\n\tInternet based, its sweep is beyond the narrow confines of geography, nationality and community.<\/strong> And as this
\nform of media is available in most of the major languages spoken around the world, it has people in its ambit that are
\nnot necessarily conversant in English only. And not only youth but people of all generations are a part of this
\nplatform. Have a look at the stats:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Its role as an equalizer is evident in the way celebrities, sportspersons, politicians, CEO\u2019s, and commoners can
\n\tinteract with each other on any given topic.<\/strong> The feel of owning a personal space on the Internet sets this
\ntype of media apart from any other forum. It is indeed empowering as people can directly interact with the powers that
\nbe, bring up their concerns, and can act as a force multiplier to even influence policies \u2013 Brexit being one.<\/p>\n

Traditional Media Stands vis-a-vis Social Media<\/strong>
\nThe role of traditional media in shaping up opinion on about every conceivable sphere is well known. However, its
\npassive nature of information dissemination stands out in sharp contrast to the active nature of interaction possible on
\nsocial media. And as more and more people are joining the digital bandwagon, the role of traditional media seems
\n\tto have shrunk.<\/strong> Importantly, thanks to the one-sided communication being part-and-parcel of traditional
\nmedia, readers are forced to accept what has been printed in a newspaper or shown on television. This becomes alarming
\nwhen editors subscribing to a particular political or social ideology use traditional media to disseminate a particular
\nstrand of thought.<\/p>\n

This makes this form of media to appear as biased \u2013 an unfortunate outcome given the expectation of neutrality from the
\nfourth pillar of democracy. Social media<\/a>, on the other hand, is the game changer as people of all hues can simultaneously
\ninteract, dissect and share information. No one can tar the social media with accusations of bias as people with
\nopposing views on a given subject can easily counteract the dominant narrative, should the need arise with facts,
\nfigures, videos and illustrations. Check out the average time spend on social media on the everyday basis:<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

In fact, the power and reach of social media is such that even the traditional media is forced to make their presence
\nfelt on such platforms. Thus, one can find media houses such as The Times of India, The Indian Express, The Hindu, and
\nmany others having separate accounts on social media.<\/p>\n

Impact on Politics<\/strong>
\nTraditionally, the political parties use to strategies, reach voters, know their preferences, and disseminate ideologies
\n& salient features of their manifesto by employing a plethora of methods. These methods include putting
\nadvertisements in newspapers, radio, television, and roadside hoardings, undertake pamphlet distribution,
\n\tcarrying out door to door campaigns,<\/strong> and conducting street corner meetings & mega rallies.<\/p>\n

However, with the advent of social media there has been a major paradigm shift in the way political parties and
\nindividual leaders carry out campaigns. Even though traditional means of campaigning as mentioned above have not been
\ndiscontinued per se, major focus has been given to social media about the way dissemination of messages is carried out
\nto the target audience. In fact, the growing inclination towards the social platform has garnered a good chunk of
\nfollowers of the political parties for their social campaigns:<\/p>\n

\"social<\/p>\n

The demographic presence on social media, especially of the youth, is such that every political party or leader worth
\nhis or her salt wants to court them. Every political party employs a backroom team of tech savvy individuals who carry
\nout constituency wise research about the prevalent issues and possibly gauge the \u2018mood\u2019 of the electorate. The team
\nidentifies likeminded user groups and sends across the desired messaging. For example: if user groups are found to post
\narticles, newsfeeds, videos, or images on animals, the concerned political party having interest in the field can
\ndirectly approach them. Many a times, these user groups become surrogates of a political party or formation by
\n\tcreating echo chambers where similar types of information are shared and debated.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Importantly, social media has become an excellent platform for political parties as they can reach any number of voters
\nwithout much expense. In fact, in the 2014 elections India, the increase in the daily number of followers on social
\nhandles of the major political parties namely, BJP, Congress and the new kid-on-the-block AAP, is humongous. Here is the
\ndata:<\/p>\n

\"Social<\/p>\n

In contrast, traditional means of campaigning cost huge sums of money. The political parties tactfully strategize how,
\nwhere and what social platform to be used for spreading their election campaigns. The 3 major political parties during
\nthe elections have smartly managed their available resources to grab attention of the voters. See how they have used
\nevery bit of the social platform to reach out the population:<\/p>\n

\"Social<\/p>\n

Even the Election Commission of India has found the social media useful and a ready platform to register voters<\/a>, educate people on their voting rights and the importance of
\ncasting their votes.<\/p>\n

How Individual Political Leaders have used the social media?<\/strong>
\nWhen it comes to social media and the way it has been used in election campaigning, a few names stand out \u2013 Barack
\nObama, Narendra Modi, Donald Trump, and Arvind Kejriwal. Even important policies with the potential to impact
\n\tnational, regional and global course of events in terms of economics and security have used social media \u2013 Brexit
\n\tbeing a leading example.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If some social commentators\u2019 views are taken into account the 2014 parliamentary elections in India can be called
\nwatershed elections where the role of social media was significant if not decisive. In fact, some even prefer to call it
\nthe social media elections given its extensive use in analyzing, campaigning and messaging the target audience. Even
\nthough the outcome of elections was mainly determined by factors such as corruption at high places, policy paralysis
\netc., social media platforms were judiciously used by the Bhartiya Janata Party to reach not only its core voters but
\nalso fence sitters.<\/p>\n

\"Political<\/p>\n

n fact, Mr. Narendra Modi has become the most sought after leader on social media with
\n\t\ta vast group of followers on both Facebook and Twitter accounting above 40 million and 29 million,
\n\t\trespectively.<\/span><\/em> In this he is preceded only by Mr. Barrack Obama, the erstwhile President of US. During
\nthe 2014 elections, Mr. Narendra Modi had used Twitter and Facebook with devastating effect on his opponents. In fact,
\none of his tweets post the 2014 election victory stating \u2018India has won, acche din
\n\t\taane wale hain<\/em>\u2019<\/strong> became the most trending tweet across the globe.<\/p>\n

\"Narendera<\/p>\n

Mr. Modi and his team deftly use the social media to post quips, statements, photos, videos and illustrations. And while
\ndoing so, he chooses to bypass the traditional media<\/strong> (print and electronic), as more often than not
\nthis section of the media is unfavorably disposed to him or the government.<\/p>\n

Even today, he makes sure that every member of his team remains active on social media and responds to the queries,
\nfeedback and problems of the people of India. In fact, considering the history of politics in India, BJP stands
\n\tout to be the first party to start interaction with the people through social media platforms, followed by AAP and
\n\tcongress.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Right from his meeting with global dignitaries to his family members, Mr. Modi makes sure to share his pics with his
\nfollowers throughout the world.<\/p>\n

\"Narendera<\/p>\n

Not only this, but our respected PM also gained appreciation worldwide for his Swachh
\n\tBharat Mission, wherein he shared the images of him sweeping a street followed by another image showing the same
\n\tstreet amazingly clean.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Narendera<\/p>\n

Another leader who has used the social media to great effect is Mr. Arvind Kejriwal. This bureaucrat turned
\nanti-corruption crusader turned politician had formed a nascent political party called the Aam Aadmi Party or
\n\tThe Common Man\u2019s Party on the sidelines of India Against Corruption movement launched by the octogenarian social
\n\treformer, Mr. Anna Hazare.<\/strong> Such was the craze and credibility of Mr. Arvind Kejriwal among people cutting
\nacross class, region and religion that his party was catapulted to the seat of power in Delhi by a whopping 67 seats. In
\nfact, when his party was launched as a crusade movement against corruption and old style redundant form of governance, a
\ngood number of people from the media and corporate world left their careers and joined the party. This tech savvy lot
\nhad successfully matched the BJP in formulating campaign strategies on social media for AAP.<\/p>\n

Consequent to the elevation of these two leaders as PM and CM, other leaders too were ensnared by the reach and power of social
\n\tmedia<\/a>. Now, there is hardly any leader who is not active on social media, and more often than not their success or
\nfailure is determined by users on this media itself.<\/p>\n

Future of Social Media<\/strong><\/p>\n

With digital becoming the numero-uno medium for almost everything, the role of social media is going to increase
\nmanifold. Even notwithstanding the negative fallout of this media<\/a> in fanning religious and racial hatred, terrorism, and cyber crime,
\nsocial media is here to stay. Also, going forward, the traditional media shall not remain a counterpoise to social media
\nbut rather complement it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":881,"template":"","class_list":["post-880","socialmedia","type-socialmedia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Increasing Footprint of Social Media In Polity and Other Spheres<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Increasing Footprint of Social Media in Polity and Other Spheres - Explore the growing influence of social media in politics and other domains\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/artattackk.com\/blogs\/social-media\/the-increasing-footprint-of-social-media-in-polity-and-other-spheres\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Increasing Footprint of Social Media In Polity and Other Spheres\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Increasing Footprint of Social Media in Polity and Other Spheres - 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