Pol Science Final

Abstract
The mounting influence of technology and social media in India has stimulated the citizens. It
offered citizens numerous sources in contrast to government owned news channels. In 21 st
century as citizens explored the internet they found new way to voice their opinions by social
networking websites. The concerned piece of scratch in the form of paper attempts to enunciate
the impact of technology in the election campaigning and how technology influences voter
choice. The paper also aims to show the misuse of media and technology by those who are in
power. The data for the study is obtained from blogs, Election Commission of India, surveys, and
news paper articles.
Introduction
Technology is changing the face of politics and elections more and more. Everything is faster,
more immediate.1 Media and technology has become the prime source getting information about
the politicians. Over a period of time, people had witnessed the transformation brought by
technology in the way of conducting elections campaigning and in making people rational while
making voting decision. Media is becoming the source of sharing of political images and
messages, affecting voters choice.2 Research studies in 1940s that four factors affect the voters
choice ( in order of importance) : party affiliation, social group allegiance, the candidates
personality and consideration of the issues. But now it has been reversed. Social science research
indicates that the candidate's personality, their position on issues, party affiliation and group
membership are now the deciding factors.3 The main reason for this reversal is the development
of technology and media. Technology and media promotes direct communication of candidates
and parties with the voters which helps in improving candidates personality over other issues.
India is a multilingual, multiethnic and multireligious country with a plethora of factors shaping
the contours of political behavior.4 After independence Indian remained a Parliamentary form of
democracy, having slight closeness with American model of federalism. In 2009 elections there
were about 714 million voters, making India as the largest democracy of the world. In India
internet and television were successful in bringing the changes into private and personal sphere
of ones life which carried more weight and were quicker than the changes brought by any
educational, industrial or social reform. Over a decade after independence electronic media was
not into action. In absence of electronic media print media and radio were the primary source of
1
http://trib.com/editorial/columns/technology-changes-elections/article_53b8ff0c-17f1-57129d09-79987d7343ec.html
2
Folder mein se dekho chapter 1 name se hai ek link
3
Intro 1 name se link hai
4
Chapter 1 link
political information and mobilization.5 It was the first time in September 1959 when mass media
got a boost, as television was introduced in the urban India. People witnessed numerous rounds
of debates between politicians for the very first time. The deregulation of the television network
in the 1990s was accompanied by the internet revolution 6. According to International
Telecommunication Union , 2008, from between 1992 to 2010 number of internet users grew to
381,000,000. Today replacing television internet became the most promising means of
information delivery and helping in enhancing democracy by changing the traditional one way
process of political communications7. Indias major population is young, so they rely more on the
information provided by internet. Social networking websites and other way of campaigning
such as mobile phones etc. are have changed the way of election campaigning. Politicians are
using them as a cost and time effective way of campaigning. Older methods are being slightly
replaced. Technology has also made politician accountable and now they have to think twice
before adding feathers to their nest. Television campaigning has some positive points but
negative as well. The concept of paid media is becoming a bane for the democracy. Moreover the
emerging issue of use of fake facebook accounts of politician to create a sense of
misapprehension between parties should also be checked. Election commission of India recently
issued guidelines for the limiting the unfair use of social media. Now we have to wait and watch
how effective they will be in 2014 Lok Sabha Elections.
5
6
7
id
id
Grossman, 1995, 149; Oblak and Zeljan, 2007, p.60
Social Networking: Integral Part of Indian Politics in 2014 Elections

India is gearing up for the general election 2014 and few months left for the announcement from
the election commission of India.8 Previously Internet was not a common thing for everyone but
in recent year it has gained popularity and became very common. Due to the recent development
in the recent years social media has came into picture. This also helped the industrial sector in
reaching the market and knowing and understanding the people and their trend. The top users of
social networking websites such as Facebook , Twitter, Google + are teenagers (youth). This
youth only will be playing a significant role in 2014 General elections in changing the condition
of India by contributing their views and ideas for goodness. Although the previous generation
people had a great interest in politics but their resource to acquire knowledge about it was limited
as there was only one medium available that is of newspaper, but in present day the youth have
Internet and Social networking which can help them to bring drastic change in General Elections
of 2014
Today the role of social media is not restricted to the common man only but it had affected
politicians. Now its not just about you and me but it had raised its range to the politics also. The
social media had become the public eye due to different political activities by the politician on
the public platform. The existence of social media in politics will certainly manipulate the
upcoming elections of 2014. The result of which can be seen in the present election in New Delhi
where a new party known as AAM AADMI PARTY emerged as a big boom and completely
became the apple of everyones eye where the big leading parties thought that they cant cut the
mustard. Inverse to the expectation of every one it proved to be a cock and bull story for the
leading parties and completely piped down them. The main reason for the tremendous victory of
AAP was the correct use of social media and striking on the main nerve of common people via
8
http://rightcolumnmedia.com/2014/01/21/2014-election-campaign-to-boom-advertisingindustry
social networking. Politics has changed its shape in the 21 st century, to a great extent. The study
conducted by IRIS Knowledge Foundation and supported by the Internet and Mobile Association
of India (IAMAI)9 had clearly depicted that in Lok Sabha election of 2014 social media will be a
real game changer. The politicians are now gaining supporters using Facebook, Twitter and
Google +. The success of mass movement of Anna Hazare was a clear example of influence of
technology in todays politics. The leaders/ parties are building their own website to reach a
larger group of people. Parties find it easy to spread their agenda over social media and they can
easily get the feedback on it. The parties are now trying to cover whole nine yards by giving a
significant importance to social campaigning. Recently Gujarats Chief Minister Narendra Modi
organized a political conference over the web, which makes him third person to do so after Barak
Obama and Julia Gillard. The politics has changed, now the parties dont wait till the cows come
home but they have started using social media as a platform for campaign. Researchers have
arrived at the conclusion that social media will be playing a more significant role in influencing
the people rather than televisions.
The recent report published by Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Indian
Market Research Bureau (IMRB) in June 2013 titles as Social Media in India - 2013 clearly
showed that there is a huge development of social media in urban areas. The following chart
shows the internet users in metros:
http://www.mapsofindia.com/my-india/society/role-of-social-media-in-india
The result of the study shows, there will be a 3 4 percent of vote swing in the 24 states where
the size of internet users in large. The political parties have also near about 5% of their budget
for social media campaigning. Google TNS survey also depicts that the undecided urban
population will be certainly aided by Internet in decision making in the Lok Sabha Election of
2014.
FACEBOOK: A NEW VOTEBANK IN THE INDIAN POLITICS
Indian democracy is on the cusp of a revolution led by social media users. At a very conservative
estimate, the fortunes of contestants seeking election to the next Lok Sabha from not less than
150 constituencies will be determined by Facebook users making them the newest Vote Bank
with the power to shape Indian politics. 10 Facebook have dramatically changed the way political
campaigns are run11 and how people connect to their elected representatives. Social media has
made the politicians more accountable as compared to older days. Now the people had a direct
measure to criticize them. Politicians use facebook very cleverly to reach their constituencies to
advertise their party and to tell their constituency regarding the developments in the policies they
made. Parties now seek the opinion of public via social media so as to satisfy them and to gain
their support. Now the time of holding back of horses has gone and the time for action has came.
Facebook is now the new votebank of the country. Facebook has changed the face of world
politics and now it is affecting Indian too. Here are six ways that Facebook and its users have
forever changed the face of politics.12
1. Make Politics and Politicians more accessible : The materialization of Facebook

opened the doors for the general public to get connected to the politics more and more. In
place of wasting long hours on television or on internet people in search of political
news , facebook provided the people with an option to go the fan page of the politician
and get the latest information about the latest issues. Personal contact makes the
politicians to be more accountable for their actions and words.13
10
Report of iris foundation and iamc. Article hai dekhna hoga wo blue wala.
http://uspolitics.about.com/od/CampaignsElections/tp/How-Social-Media-Has-ChangedPolitics.htm
12
http://facebook.about.com/od/Advanced/tp/6-Ways-Facebook-Has-Changed-Politics.htm
13
11
2. Increase Youth Voting Rates: By providing an easy, immediate way to share and access
campaign information and support candidates, Facebook has increased the political
mobilization of young people, in particular students.14 The credits for turning out the
second largest youth voting in the history of America , in the Presidential elections of
2008 directly goes to facebook. As the intensity of participation of new generation is
increasing, they hope that their say should be kept in mind in determining the issues that
drive campaigns and make the ballots.15
3. Advertising without Advertising: Advertising on television or radio results in losing an
arm and a leg for political parties. Facebook alternatively has become fairly cost efficient
to political parties. The parties can produce commercials and publish them on facebook
for free.16 Many a times the journalists in their interview with leaders or while submitting
their reports on campaigning will write or talk about these advertisement , essentially
broadcasting these advertisement to wider populations without any additional cost to the
politicians.17
4. Better targeting of voter: The more the politicians are accessible to public via facebook
, the more and immediate feedback they receive on their stance on various policies for the
elections by public and opponents. Criticism of their methodology by public help the
campaign organizers and strategist to use this feedback and analyse it with many modern
app such as Wisdom, which identifies the demographic area from which the most likes,
shares and positive comments are coming. This information helps the campaign
masterminds to target specific groups to rally new and existing supporters and raise
funds.18
5.
Force Media to Provide Reflective Coverage: Communication between politicians

and the public on Facebook obliges the media to take a backseat in the reporting process.
In an effort to reach a larger audience and speak directly to supporters, politicians often
subvert the press by posting messages on their own Facebook pages. Facebook users see
14
15
16
id
Id
http://uspolitics.about.com/od/CampaignsElections/tp/How-Social-Media-Has-ChangedPolitics.htm
17
id
18
these messages and respond to them. The media must then report on public response to a
politicians message rather than on the message itself. This process replaces the
traditional, interrogatory reporting of the press with a reflective style of coverage that
requires the press to report on trending issues instead of new stories19
The New Modi - Virtual MODI
Narendra Modi, the man of technology is one of the most polarizing figure Indian
Politics has ever evidenced. 20 Modi is among one of the few doozy politicians who has used the
technology like no other. In his political campaign Namo has got down to the brass tacks
regarding technology. From Facebook, Twitter, Google + and now on 3D the politician spares no
efforts to complete the whole nine yards. 21 The way Modi has used his loaf is certainly
commendable. Bharitya Janta Party (hereinafter referred as BJP), which projects itself as the
most tech- savvy party is has presentted it prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in 3D
during election rallies.22 Modis use of 3D technology and completely swayed the minds of
young generation and settled him apart from his detractors and political rivals in terms of his
openness towards experimenting with latest technology and innovation to directly reach out to
people.23 This is the very first time any political leader has used this kind of technology to
address people. There were certain criticism of this technology but Modi maintained to handle
the criticism very wisely. The 3D technology creates a 3Dvirtual image with audio and visual
effects.24 In this there is no use of satellite transmission; instead, a camera is set at a different
angle and an image is beamed using camera techniques to offer a real viewing experience
without 3D glasses.25 Although this technique was not cost efficient but Modi managed to cover
4 locations at a time without taking stress and strain of travel, making it time efficient technique.
This technology is also known as Eyeliner. It is one of the most expensive technologies, and
cost near about 100 crores to BJP. A company from Dubai was given the tender for this political
19
id
http://www.nextbigwhat.com/narendra-modi-uses-technology-for-election-297/
21
22
http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/karnataka/Virtual-Modi-to-Come-on-Stage-atElection-Rallies/2013/12/26/article1965867.ece#.Uvj5RfmSwuw
23
http://www.ciol.com/ciol/news/122003/narendra-modi-goes-tech-adopts-3d-technology
24
25
20
campaign of Modi. It is true that BJP spent a lot of money on this campaign but the influence of
it was such that even housewives left their daily tele soaps to watch 3D for the first time.26
Modi is not restricted to 3D technology only but he also became the first Indian
politician to answer questions from followers on Google +. Statistics suggested that the
two hour recorded video of Modi , broadcast in September on Google+ was watched by
82,000 people live on Youtube from 116 countries.27, More than 3 lakh people are in his
Google + circle, and statistics claims that Modi has more views than US president Barak
Obama had witnessed in 9 motnhs. On Twitter and Facebook, Namo has more than one
million followers. He used this opportunity by sharing the videos and photographs of
campaign in an order to spread it nationwide. Also, he has arranged for Live streaming
where people can see his true avatar and can contact him personally without any media
anchors.
Mobile Phones in Election and Voter Registration Campaign
Mobile phones are used in increasing the participation in the elections. It helps in encouragement
of youth to participate in elections, monitor elections and also act as a watch dog in preventing
electoral frauds.28 Along with the other campaigning strategies it is emerging as most powerful
tool in increasing the democratic participation in civil society.29 While internet has affected the
globe by mails, blogs, websites, social networking, mobile phones alongside has emerged in
unifying the country and has became the most primary cause for the political actions. 30 Although
internet has a wide reach but mobiles phones exhibits some exceptional characteristics such as
portability, affordability and wide spread of use, which makes it handy for politicians , to reach
and advertise in remote areas. The impact of mobile phones is clearly visible in the arena of
elections and voter registration campaign. The use of it is not only restricted to only campaigning
now but, its use in the recent time has been observed in the area of educating people regarding
their electoral rights, tracking electoral activities such as turnout and fraud and in raising funds
26
27
28
29
30
http://www.ndi.org/files/MobileActiveGuide1_English.pdf
for parties and candidates. 31In 2004 Lok Sabha elections the use of mobile phones was at
experimental stage but now a lot has been learnt about the use of mobile phones in organizing
successful campaigns.
The mobiles phones are becoming the cheapest means of communication spaced out from
internet , offering the political parties to reach number of constituencies with in the short of time
during electoral period. Young generation is mostly the target of political parties as they are very
comfortable in using the mobile phones and text messaging. 32 The main credit for the popularity
of mobile phones does not go to its usual voice capabilities but to text messaging. Being among
the most personal means of communications it allows the political campaigners to bypass the
mass media when targeting voters with electoral messages. 33 Mobile phones instead of providing
detailed information bout the campaign provides abstract or light version of campaign and incites
the population to come to rallies or to visit their websites for detailed information. As witnessed
in Delhi Elections, AAM AADMI PARTY has used mobile phones in their campaigning very
cleverly, by calling on the mobile phones of people playing a recorded message, appealing to
vote them. Also AAP being new party adopted a new method of gaining support by allowing
people to become member by giving missed call on their official numbers. 34 National Parties can
use this concept to reach the areas where its not possible for them to reach. This technique is
very cost effective. Parties in 2014 elections introduced a new way of promotion also, i.e. to
provide the caller tune service of their politically motivated speeches and ringtones free of cost.
Challenges faced by mobile phone campaigning
Mobile phones have not reached in many rural areas due to limited signal connectivity, so
in these areas the electoral campaign of the party will be restricted.35
There are significant security concerns for some activists using mobile phones during
elections in areas where SIM cards and accounts are registered and monitored by local
authorities.
31
32
33
34
35
http://www.aamaadmiparty.org/AAP-membership-drive
In many countries the people are familiar with the text messages sent from the central
computer system, whereas in, whereas in some countries people cannot adopt this system,
so the participation rate in such countries may not be high.
Mobile phone campaigning interferes in the personal space of the people as many times
the central computer system make call on the mobile phone of the civilians at night time,
which is not called for.
Mobile phone offers a very limited interactivity and a very small screen.36
The campaigners should be careful about sending excessive amount of SMS to opt in
participations.37
Electronic Media and Election Campaign

In an age of timeliness and demand for information, the media plays a crucial role in informing
the public about politics, campaigns and elections. 38Political parties and candidates tend to find
the media, and in particular television, more and more important for campaigning and seek to
appear as much as possible on the television.39 Television today is regarded as best suited method
for campaigning as it covers a wide range of voters throughout the nation. The media is
performing its function by helping voters to form an opinion about of the competing political
parties and their candidates by informing them about the agendas and policies, contributing in
the voter education.40 The main aim of media during elections is to keep an eye and act as a
watch dog and fair circulation of information. Polticians are using media to get exposure to win
elections. Media brings effectiveness in its work by brining into limelight the issue they feel that
public should be aware of them. 41 The media also changes the view of a candidate in the eyes of
public by challenging or supporting the viability of a candidate. Exit polls on the televisions
influence the choice of the people. If surveys show that a party or candidate is will be in lead in
36
37
38
39
40
41
http://voices.yahoo.com/the-influence-media-politics-campaigns-and-651361.html?cat=9
http://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/pc/pcc/pcc07
id
the elctions, the public will come to accept that evalution 42, which can greatly affect the election
results as most of the people do not intend to waste time on the party or candidate whom they see
not having any chance to win. But now the things are changing rapidly. The politicians are using
media to win the elections by false means or by influencing them. There used be a time when
things were unbiased and clear but the role of electronic media has changed now. The media has
now become the puppets of political parties. They have lost their own standings and now the
media which used to be the watch dog, transformed itself purely into commercialization. The
media has now been a part of criticism. Here are the few ways in which the politicians are using
media to win elections:
1. Staged Political Rallies: The basic idea behind organizing rallies is to gain support for a
candidate. There is nothing wrong when those homemade signs that you see waving in the
air are often drawn by campaign workers themselves, not people at home. 43 Many times
when there are not enough crowds, the workers and volunteers made false crowd so that
TV cameras dont capture empty room44. They are dressed so that they appear to be a part
of the crowd, such as workers, teachers, old men etc. but all that is only illusionary. For
example, if a candidate is not doing well with young voters, we will see fake college
students or young people in the background. In this way parties influence the choice of
voters by way of displaying false support.
2. Exclusive one-on-interviews: TV reporters are always eager for exclusive interviews of
politician to increase the TRP of their channels. Campaign experts know to utilize this
interview as free publicity, they are aware that an exclusive interview just before election
day will become viral all over the television, newspaper and social networking. But these
interviews are not mostly the real one but are scripted. No questions will be off the table.45
Political parties are paying heavily for organizing such interviews.
3. TV Commercials and Print Ads: Candidates with enough money spend much of it on
advertisement on TV and on print media. Just like all other ads, the aim is to sell a product,
42
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44
45
id
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not necessarily to tell the entire truth about the candidate or his campaign.46 Many time
these advertisement are misleading or downright false. Media knowing of this fact dont
take any initiative to stop these adverts in pursuance of profit.
4. Paid News manipulating the free press
The Blatant misuse of print and electronic media by parties and candidates contesting the
general elections came to light during elections in 2004 and 2009. The practice used areas
such as business news to institutionalize paid news in print and electronic media to
influence public opinion especially during the elections. The journalists became news
managers succumbing to pressure from media executives 47. This concern was first time
raised by Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ). Press Council of India
formed a two member sub-committee which first time defined paid news as any news
or analysis appearing in any media (print or electronic) for a price in cash or kind as
consideration.48. Paid news publishes or telecast the achievements of those candidates who
had paid them a huge amount. The adverts appears in a very dramatic way along with the
any other news, that it misleads the viewer by making them believe that its a actual news
story produced by a local correspondent.49 The unaccounted advertisements dressing up as
news are causing much concern. 50 Even unaccounted they are expected to be 65 billion per
month in the coming elections, as a result the claim of conducting free and fair elections
become dubious. The studies in this direction shows even top national and state parties are
not subject to exception. The constitution of India, parliament and judiciary provide with
some power to election commission to to deal with problem of paid news.51 The Press
Council of India in July 2010 has recommended an amendment in Representation of
peoples act 1951, that any kind of payment for advertising or publication of news will be
considered as mal practice. The former chairman of Press Council of India demanded the
government to set up a committee to eradicate the concept of paid news from the country.
46
47
48
49
50
51
http://www.aibd.org.my/node/1219
http://www.aibd.org.my/node/1219
id
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Guidelines by election commission

The Election Commission of India taking cognizance of growing role of social media
campaigning in electoral campaigns in the Lok Sabha elections 2014 recently issued the
guidelines regarding the use of social media. 52 The basic idea behind the issue of these
guidelines is to maintain decorum in online campaigning. The ECI will keep an eye on
the use of internet by the political parties and candidates in an order to monitor their posts
on social networking websites and on internet in respect to violation of electoral laws and
model code of conduct.53 In the history of Indian Elections this is the very first time ECI
issued such guidelines, prior to this ECI only monitored the content on print and
electronic media.54 According to ECI these guidelines were needed as there was certain
violation of electoral laws in the social media55 and these violations are need to be
regulated to bring transparency and level playing field in the elections. 56. These
guidelines are very basic and essential steps and are pervasive enough. But there are
certain ambiguities in these which need to be analysed. The ECI have issued guidelines
on the following subject matter :
1. Candidates Social Media Account : Candidates are required to provide information
about their social media account , at the time of filling nominations by way of affidavit.57
My Take : This a very necessary step, for a number of reasons : as there is no verification
policy by facebook and twitter to verify the accounts registered on their website. The
authentication of accounts is mandatory as without the verification of accounts people
with false identity used to make derogatory statements on other candidates and parties,
violating electoral laws. This verification will help in validating the statements made by
politician online, as it can be easily found that whether its the politician who is making
the statements or someone with fake identity. Facebook and twitter with the help of these
52
http://www.medianama.com/2013/10/223-election-commission-social-media-india/
http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/eci-to-monitor-social-media113102500883_1.html
54
55
56
57
http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/current/SocialMedia_CI25102013.pdf
53
affidavits will verify the account and if the account is authenticated , then the money
spent by the account holder in managing that account, will be directly accountable to
Election Commission.
2. Pre-Certification of Political Advertisements58 : The ECI had taken a very strong step
towards the advertising on social media as well as on televisions. Now the political
parties, national and state, and independent candidates are required to take a precertification from the ECI before publication of advertisements on television channels or
on any form of electronic media including social media.
My take: while online advertising requires spends, statements on Social Media are not
necessarily advertisements. So, on Twitter, a promoted trend might cost Rs 5.5 lakh,
but with the user-driven-amplification that Twitter provides, its not needed. Facebook,
however, necessitates expenditure because it limits the reach of your updates even to
subscribers. Thus, candidates are likely to spend on Facebook. Note that while messages
might be subject to approval, online advertising is largely dynamic in nature, and spends
can vary, depending on the reach of the advertisement, and the number of clicks (if
candidates are using CPC), during a certain period. So, while the message may be
certified by the EC, the spends are not going be easy to determine.
3. Expenditure on campaigning through internet including social media websites.59
According to Section 77, sub section (1), of Representation of the People Act,1951,
every candidate is required to keep a separate and correct account of all expenditure in
connection with the election incurred or authorized by him or by his election agent
between the date on which he has filed nomination and the date of declaration of the
result thereof, both dates inclusive.60 In the famous case of Common Cause vs. Union
Of India61 Supreme Court ordered the political parties to submit the expenditure incurred
by them during elections within 75 days in case of assembly elections and 90 days in Lok
Sabha Elections. Election Commission by this guideline made it very clear that
expenditure on social media websites is also a part of expenditure in connection with
elections62
58
59
60
61
62
Representation of peoples act
My Take : This is a complicated as it is very difficult to distinguish between the

expenditure by a party, and expenditure on a party 63 as sometimes the outside
supporters of a party spend money to manage the social media votebank or managing
properties or armies of social media accounts for the64. Also it is nearly impossible to
value the work done by a volunteer for his party. This is the issue very Election
Commission fails.
4. Application of Model Code of Conduct to content on Internet including social
media65 : The Election Commission of India has its own model code of conduct which
comes in force during the time of elections from the date of announcement of elections,
till the elections are completed. ECI has made it clear that provisions of the model code
of conduct and instructions issued timely, shall be applicable on the content posted by
candidates and political parties on social media websites & internet. 66 But this guideline
is a little tricky as there are some ambiguities. Some points which are to be noted are:
a. Online abuse : According to model code of conduct (1) No party or
candidate shall include in any activity which may aggravate existing
differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes
and communities, religious or linguistic. and (2) Criticism of other political
parties, when made, shall be confined to their policies and programme, past
record and work. Parties and Candidates shall refrain from criticism of all
aspects of private life, not connected with the public activities of the leaders or
workers of other parties. Criticism of other parties or their workers based on
unverified allegations or distortion shall be avoided.67
63
64
65
66
67
Model code of conduct of eci check from web for actual citation
My take: In the campaigning for Lok Sabha elections this time the use of internet has
been quite significant. These norms of Election commission are clearly being violated
number of times, not by the political parties but by their supporters online. The supporters
are immune from this guideline of model code of conduct, of which they are taking undue
advantage in criticizing and ruining the image of their opponents unlawfully.
b. 48 hours deadline : According to model code of conduct (4) All parties and
candidates shall avoid scrupulously all activities which are corrupt practices
and offences under the election law, such as bribing of voters, intimidation of
voters, impersonation of voters, canvassing within 100 meters of polling
stations, holding public meetings during the period of 48 hours ending with the
hour fixed for the close of the poll, and the transport and conveyance of voters
to and from polling station.
My take: The application of this not much clear. It has not been made clear that whether
candidates can use or not use their social media accounts before 48 hours of elections.
Also whether the speeches that were recorded before this deadline be broadcasted or not.
The difference between online and offline media is that online media is perpetual it is
on-demand and doesnt need to be live or part of a live coverage.68
Conclusion
In this paper I have tried to study the impact of technology and electronic media on the election
campaigning methods. I have also studied about the development of technology in the recent
years and about the changes brought down by it in the campaigning. In order for better
understanding the role of technology we have focused on the social networking and electronic
media. Primary focus was given to the social media as it will be a real game changer in 2014
election. A small amount of light is also shed on the technologies used by Shri Narendra Modi
in election campaigning which differentiates him from the crowd traditional politicians. As far
as the role of internet is concerned we have focused on the facebook as how it is emerging as
the new vote bank of the country. My finding suggests that internet and social networking
websites will exercise a meaningful influence over the choice of voters in the coming years. The
68
http://www.medianama.com/2013/10/223-election-commission-social-media-india/
impact of mobile phone can also be seen in the election campaigning as people witnessed the
effect of it in the Delhi elections where AAP comes into power by a wise use mobile and social
campaigning. I have also studied about the paid media and how it is unethical practice and
diverts the mind of voters. The issue of guidelines by the Election Commission of India, to limit
the use of social media has some loopholes which are needed to be corrected and reissued after
certain amendments in them.

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Pol Science Final

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Abstract

Social Networking: Integral Part of Indian Politics in 2014 Elections

1. Make Politics and Politicians more accessible : The materialization of Facebook

Force Media to Provide Reflective Coverage: Communication between politicians

Electronic Media and Election Campaign

Guidelines by election commission

My Take : This is a complicated as it is very difficult to distinguish between the

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