The Impact Of Social Media In Politics

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The bond between a registered voter and the political parties is one of the most important features of modern democracy; influencing voters and how they interpret politics, reaching decisions, assessing the government performance and finally how they participate in the political process. According to Dale and Strauss (2009), for some elections if it is ensured that voters are paying attention to the messages that will persuade them to vote, the turnout strategy will prove to be successful.
Most of the Indian political contenders are using the social media to create awareness, however there still are many of them who are still pursuing traditional media for campaigning. For instance, Rahul Gandhi the Prime Ministerial candidate of the current …show more content…

In a political campaign, social media platforms like Facebook, provided voters to become more politically engaged with candidates. If strategically used, it’s a skill that has lasting effects.
On the other hand, a huge amount of research has been concentrated on the negative social and political impact that social media (internet) may have. According to Nguyen and Alexander (2010), the spread of Internet with people encouraging them to increasingly share space, was, is and will continue to have a negative impact on the individual and social consciousness.

2.9 Literature Conclusion
As a part of political communication source, social media is a recent phenomenon in Indian political scenario. The literature review of this study suggests that though the use of social media indicates potential of encouraging voter participation in India, the evidence that could support this argument is yet to be seen, as many of the Indian politicians have recently adopted social media as a tool for political …show more content…

Since independence, around 15 Lok Sabha’s have been formed through elections. Indian political contests range from local races involving a few thousand people, to prime minister elections that include over eight hundred million registered voters (The Independent, 2014).
Elections are evidently vital to the political campaigns and candidates, who are running with the objective of getting victory, which are receiving a majority of the votes. To achieve this, candidates must have their followers and supporters both cast a ballot, and cast it in the favour of the contender. This research therefore, examines what influence Facebook and Twitter had on voters when, as a social media platform was used to send specific messages asking individual voters to cast their ballot during 2014 Indian general Lok Sabha elections.
The research is limited to the scope of registered voters in India who use Facebook and Twitter as a social networking tool. The scope of the research does not include unregistered voters who have not previously casted a vote or do not cast a ballot currently. The research also does not include the discussion on political parties’ strategies, political campaigns and parties standing on social issues. Although these play a role in influencing individual voters and their decision to vote, are outside the scope of this

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