Lok Sabha polls 2024: Experts give insights into social media's role in politics

The season where political content dominates most peoples timelines began with the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 phase 1 on April 19 Hilarious memes and edits using film clips are making rounds of the social media platforms with parties finding comedic ways of taking a dig at each other while the supporters join the bandwagonClips from Sacha Baron Cohens black comedy film The Dictator or stills from popular Bollywood films like Welcome Hera Pheri Gangs of Wasseypur and others are the meme experts favourites and they dont seem to be dying down soonerHowever the trend does prompt the thought of whether social media has become a crucial tool for political parties to connect with voters share their public opinion and influence electoral outcomesUndoubtedly social media trends have a significant role in shaping the online landscape affecting what people see share and discuss Many entities including political parties do keenly follow this and tailor their outreach strategies which could enable these political parties to increase their visibility and reach diverse audiencesTo understand the same midday spoke to Aam Aadmi Party leader Preeti Sharma Menon Sharma Menon says that AAP owes its birth to social media and technologyAAP started from a movement called India Against Corruption during the gestation of the social media era in India When technology became accessible social media became accessible and popular thats when IAC was born said the party leader while responding to a question on how important it is for a party to have a social media presenceAlso Read Maharashtras political landscape braces for seismic shift ahead of Lok Sabha Elections 2024Preeti added that for AAP use of social media has been as crucial as any other aspect of the party in terms of building an organisationWe had databases we urged people to give their opinion to IAC through either missed calls SMS etc The party was born out of a social media campaign with the IAC collective asking the public if they should form a political party It was the public response that created AAP So I think Aam Aadmi Party owes its birth itself to social media and to technology she quippedUtilisation of social media toolsElucidating on the usage of social media as a tool in politics she said that although the AAP was one of the frontrunners of the movement it was the Bharatiya Janata Party that capitalised and weaponised itBJP has vast resources and they utilised every mediumespecially WhatsApp groups They created content for WhatsApp groups that every person could see on their phones Back in 2014 it was not a reel a video or even a meme They learnt to use WhatsApp optimally and that allowed them to connect amazingly well to the people of India she saidHowever she soon said that in the past few months the party despite its small stature is now neck to neck with them yet again We AAP are just 10 years old and we are just very young people with very little resources she opinedSpeaking about how AAP utilises the social media tools Preeti said that the team being relatively small does not have war rooms like Bharatiya Janata Party or others do She said We are not traditional politicians We dont have traditional manpower or bank reserves to be able to advertise If and when we could afford we would use radio advertisements but we could never afford television advertisementsPreeti Sharma Menon opined that the television channels today do not work independently and that to survive Aam Aadmi Party will have to rely on social media especially YouTube channelsIts through YouTube that independent media houses and individuals interested in politics like Akash Banerjee began creating content and their own fanbase When we realised conventional media would not allow us to air our opinions we supported YouTube channels Our leaders did not just back them but also gave interviews and were regularly involved in their campaigns she saidSocial media campaignsWhen asked about one of the partys popular campaigns Sharma Menon said that their Muffler Man campaign ahead of the Delhi Elections in 2015 was one of their successful campaignsThe muffler man campaign was an idea that came from our volunteers she said stating that it was the USP for Arvind Kejriwal as he was being viewed as a man with a muffler tied and broom in hand ready to take on corruption She said the campaign was one of the top trends for 25 days straightIn our party uh the social media in charge works on a daytoday basis with the national leadership Everything that happens in the political world today is seen on social media and is responded to on social media So today we are at a stage where I think that our social media campaign is the strongest in the countryToday we are at a stage in the country where social media is the language of politics there is no other language Everything is communicated and done through social media we speak through social media we react on social media we reach out on social media she said while speaking on communication and transparencySharma Menon added that since the party was born out of a peoples movement they did not have to face issues in connecting with the publicBattling misinformation disinformationIt should come as no surprise that social media offers political parties many benefits but it also comes with risks and obstacles The speed with which false information circulates bad press and cyberbullying can jeopardise political parties attempts to stay upbeat online and interact positively with voters Furthermore social media algorithms echo chamber effect can make it more difficult for parties to expand outside their current fan baseWhen asked about it Preeti Sharma Menon said the party faces a dilemmato continue with their messaging or to combat misinformation or disinformation about the partyThe biggest challenge that we face today is countering fake news The flip side is that a lot of false news is generated about us our leadership and events that take place It starts right from the top we dont know where to counter it she said and added The biggest challenge our social media team facescontinue with our messaging or is it necessary to refute fake messagingPreeti says while there are websites that conduct factchecking but the party also comes under pressureWhile there are sites like uh Alt News and um you know others Boom and uh some others which always keep uh debunking social media liesWhile AAP has decided to take a call to stick to their messaging it is a tightrope all political parties are walking onIs social media engagement really bringing votesWhile it is understood that social media has become an indispensable part of everyones lives it is crucial to see whether it yields as much impact as the political parties and the public believePolitical strategist and founder of Niti Tantra Ritwik Mehta in an earlier conversation had told midday that more than other social media platforms WhatsApp has become the mostutilised toolOften the people have closed groups based on their communities localities and through tapping into these spaces do the local leaders gain prominence among the masses Mehta opinedHowever Tushar Panchal founder of War Room Strategies had another perspective to share Panchal pointed out that social media in the last three to four years lost its relevance in the context of political leaders or political parties connecting with the publicElaborating on the same Panchal told midday Social media is quite a powerful tool however it has lost its relevance When it first launched in the early 2010s there was noveltyof people having access to politicians or they felt that politicians would respondThe political strategist said that politicians would look at something of interest and would share it on their social media He added that earlier leaders like Sushma Swaraj Shivraj Singh Chouhan and others were once responsive and accessible however today the public receives an automated response at bestThe idea of social media being social has gone down to drills and it has become like any other media outlet wherein its just oneway communication which will be heard or viewed by people interested in it One cannot convert anybody by posting something on their social media he said furtherSubstantiating the same he said that the responses under posts made by top parties or politicians like Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi are uniform in the sense that supporters find a way to back them and the nonaligning parties counter every wordThat is how social media has become he saidOneway communication not alluring says PanchalSpeaking in depth about the presence of political parties and politicians he said that these entities only reemphasise their message to their people which is very similar to airing an advertisement on television or printing one in the newspaperThe effectiveness is zero Whoever is looking for Congress is going to vote for Congress irrespective of whether you are there on social media he said and reiterated Social media is a tool it is a game by people who are in the business of social media to create so much of hype around it so that people invest in thatPanchal further said Earlier there was some engagement there were people behind social media Now everything is algorithmdriven so there is no connection whatsoever If you like three weeks of say Congress for example on your social media profile you start seeing all the Congress servers or posts on social media If you like three or four posts on BJP sharing then you will start looking at all the similar posts Its taken over by machineHe added that social media makes no difference in electoral outcome unless a person is either really a good leader or someone who is already connected to people and then engages with people on social media He said that people can communicate whatever they like but whether it is getting converted into a vote or not mattersThe War Room Strategies founder further said that social media does not change people it only ignites them responding to a question about how echo chambers within messaging applications like WhatsApp influence an individual