Social Media and Elections
Nick Carr wrote
an article about how every new communication medium forces political candidates
to adapt and often changes
the very nature of campaigning. In the 20th century, it first
happened with the advent of radio:
“Politicians, used to bellowing at
fairgrounds and train depots, found themselves talking to families in their
homes.”
Next came TV:
“TV placed a stress on sound bites, good
teeth and an easy manner. Image became everything, as the line between
politician and celebrity blurred.”
And now, he
laments, comes social media. With that, “political discourse is shrinking to
fit our smartphone screens” via the apps of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and
YouTube. Further, the very nature of the political candidate is changing, he
says:
“If traditional print and broadcast media
required candidates to be nouns—stable, coherent figures—social media pushes
them to be verbs, engines of activity. Authority and respect don’t accumulate
on social media; they have to be earned anew at each moment. You’re only as
relevant as your last tweet.”
Carr then says
that older candidates struggle to handle such transitions. But then he
contradicts himself by referring to Donald Trump, a candidate “adept at issuing
inflammatory bulletins at opportune moments” and almost “optimized for the
Google News algorithm”.
And if Trump is the
one who grabs the attention on social media, what choice does “regular” news
media have but to play along? Even if it invites comments from people like Jeff Jarvis who say,
“American news media: You are Donald Trump’s bitch”. The news media is just giving
the people what they want as indicated by their Like’s and Follow’s and
retweet’s on social media. It’s a cycle.
India’s own
Narendra Modi proved that age is no bar to adapting to new forms of media:
while “young” Rahul Gandhi never learnt to use social media, Modi
used it spectacularly well in the 2014 elections. Thus Modi’s campaign
launched sites like India272.com and namonumber.com and hugely popular Facebook
pages like “I support Narendra Modi”. His Twitter account has more followers
than every Indian except Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan.
Modi also
internalized the fact that “digital media is a two way communication” and so he
replies to comments posted by users. Even after getting elected. For a man with
a dictatorial image:
“(Despite) being targeted heavily by
opponents he did not block a single person for opposing him on social media.”
And the man sure
is flexible. Like on Facebook:
“Generally he speaks Hindi but however to
hook up youth (he) use(s) English.”
On YouTube, he
has his own channel and it is constantly uploaded with videos of all his
events.
As they say, age
is just a number. And one is never too old to learn.
Comments
Post a Comment