Abstract

Political campaigning is very important for any political party’s success in election. Political campaigning is carried out by political parties to inform the peoples about the plans, policies of nation building when they elected. Political campaigning also used by opposite parties to show the inefficiency of the ruling party. Today, Social media is one of the important and effective tools of mass communication. In the 21st century, the advanced communication technology has compacted every aspect of society. Today, we cannot imagine of the world without social media, especially in the field of politics. It plays a crucial role in the active political participation of the people. Free media has since long been recognized as a cornerstone of democracy and plays an important role in influencing political outcome during elections. Social media has rapidly grown as a forum for political activism in its different forms. Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Youtube provide new ways to ‘stimulate citizens’ engagement in political life where elections and electoral campaigns have crucial role. The structure of social media is very much different from traditional media, it allows people to communicate news and information in very different way. Social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social networks are now considered as politically transformative communication technologies as traditional 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. In turn, through social networking sites, voters are also provided a platform to share their opinions and to be heard. At the time of 2014 Lok Sabha Election and 2019 Indian General Election saw the widespread and innovative use of digital media and technology. Most political parties employed digital media extensively for campaigning and voter mobilisation. This extensive use of digital media was due to nearly half of India’s 900 million eligible voters having access to the Internet and social media. The country has 300 million Facebook users and over 200 million on WhatsApp, which is more than any other country. Indeed, the 2019 election was dubbed by many as the ‘WhatsApp’ election. In addition, millions in India use other media platforms such as the regional language platform ShareChat and the globally popular TikTok.

Description