No political campaign for elections is complete without use of all forms of media. In recent times importance of social media in election campaign is on the rise. Restrictions related to COVID-19 pandemic has made reach of every form of media valuable for candidates. Be it the panchayat elections in Odisha or assembly polls in five States including UP, everywhere candidates and political parties are using social media as well as the mainstream media to the maximize their reach. Social media is being used extensively by political parties because traditional mass media communication is highly regulated by the Election Commission of India.
Platform for analysis:
Traditionally opinion polls before elections and exit polls on polling days provided analysis of voters’ mood. Now social media allows time and cost-effective data collection and analysis with less human effort. Social media data can be analysed to assess public opinion. But most of time in a country like India the validity of social media analysis does not represent the general population as there is a large populace that does not use social media. In comparison to print media the TV medium is said to be having more role in political campaigns as it reaches out to larger audience.
No easy task:
Volumetric and sentimental analysis of social media data can provide an overall view of political scenario of a region. The volumetric analysis studies the volume of tweets, posts, tags and hashtags associated with the leaders of political parties and their followers. Sentimental analysis includes analysis of opinions. In 2015 there was overall positive sentiment towards the AAP and its CM candidate in Delhi. But volumetric analysis had shown that there was greater number of tweets in favour of the BJP hinting that that the party had a good support. And here sentiments shown through social media won over the volume analysis. If it was hard to analyse social media data in Delhi, it is much harder to analyse social media data from larger States.
Old and new:
Politicians still use posters, cutouts, newspaper and TV advertisements for their campaigns. TV discussions still bear importance but platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Twitter, Koo etc have also become important for political organizations to propagate their vies, debates and discussions. All mainstream media now use the digital platform as their alternative source to reach out to larger audience. Political parties also are trying to reach out to same audience on their own through social media.
BJP showed path:
Narendra Modi and the BJP were the first ones in India to use social media perfectly to reach hearts and minds of voters. In 2014 the BJP strategy to monitor the support base through social media for formulation of election strategy drew success. Now all other political parties are treading the same path.
But social media platforms are also hubs of fake news which can influence the voting choices of the citizens. During campaign season all political parties have keep close watch on negative news propagating on social media. Mainstream media can be easily monitored as they are centralised but it is quite hard to check and monitor social media where a single fake news can spread out like wildfire. Election Commission is trying to put in a model code of conduct for social media and online campaigning on various platforms. Violations on social media would be processed under the provisions of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951.
Increased awareness:
Increase in use of mainstream media and social media has increased awareness about the elections, development issues in both urban and rural areas. It has Thus, having a very meaningful as well as a positive impact as it is increasing the voting percentage during elections.
Argus News