Active politicians & social media

With the social media becoming an important political

battleground, is Social media affecting politics and trying

to influence society?

Social media Social media is the interaction among people in which they create, share or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content." Furthermore, social media depend on mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content. They introduce substantial and pervasive changes to communication between organizations, communities, and individuals.

Social media differ from traditional or industrial media in many ways, including quality , reach, frequency, usability, immediacy, and permanence . There are many effects that stem from internet usage. According to Nielsen, internet users continue to spend more time with social media sites than any other type of site. At the same time, the total time spent on social media in the U.S. across PC and mobile devices increased by 37 percent to 121 billion minutes in July 2012 compared to 88 billion minutes in July 2011.For content contributors, the benefits of participating in social media have gone beyond simply social sharing to building reputation and bringing in career opportunities and monetary income, as discussed in Tang, Gu, and Whinston (2012) Geocities, created in 1994, was one of the first social media sites. The concept was for users to create their own websites, characterized by one of six "cities" that were known for certain characteristics.

CLASSIFICATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA: Social media technologies take on many different forms including magazines, Internet forums, webblogs, social blogs, microblogging , wikis , social networks , podcasts , photographs or pictures, video, rating and social bookmarking . Technologies include blogging, picture-sharing, Blogs , wall-posting, music-sharing, crowd sourcing  and voice over IP, to name a few. Social network aggregation can integrate many of the platforms in use.

By applying a set of theories in the field of media research (social presence, media richness) and social processes (self-presentation, self-disclosure), Kaplan and Haenlein created a classification scheme in their Business Horizons (2010) article, with seven different types of social media:

collaborative projects (for example, Wikipedia)

blogs and microblogs (for example, Twitter)

Social news networking sites (for example, Digg and Leakernet)

content communities (for example, YouTube and Daily Motion)

social networking sites (for example, Facebook )

virtual game-worlds (e.g., World of Warcraft )

virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life )

India's 5 most active politicians on Facebook , Twitter

With more than half of India's population young, our politicians have now resorted to the social media to reach out to their young voters. It was Congress president Sonia Gandhi who told the party Chintan Shivir in Jaipur that the leaders should now focus on connecting with the young voters through social media. Sonia Gandhi had also advised them to use the social media to counter accusations and insinuations against the Congress. 

Now, we have politicians who update their Facebook accounts almost on a daily basis, and also access Twitter and YouTube regularly. 

1. Narendra Modi : With approximately 1.3 million followers on his Facebook page, Modi is one of the most famous politicians on social media. He joined Facebook and Twitter in 2009 and became the first politician to use Google Plus. He keeps updating his pages on FB and twitter with inspirational quotes from Swami Vivekananda and recent happenings and advancements in Gujarat state. He mainly targets youth through his social networking. People are highly responsive towards his updates by liking, commenting and sharing his updates.

Modi has a dedicated website on which developments in Gujarat done by Modi government are given in large detail. He has a Youtube channel which has reached the 15,000 mark for number of subscribers and has more than 1500 videos of Modi's rallies and functions.

Rahul Gandhi With his vision to change the face of politics, he has always been accessible to common man. Not only has Rahul Gandhi lent his ears to people in person but he has also been very interactive on his Facebook page. Rahul has approximately 2.5 lakh fans on his page. Not only Facebook, he is a very active blog writer too. He writes blogs which get published for people to know his views on issues. 

Shashi Tharoor At times, Shashi Tharoor is also referred to as  the "Twitter minister''. Tharoor might not have an official page on Facebook but to cover that up, he has almost 15 lakh followers on Twitter. That count also makes him the most persuasive politician on Twitter. He tweets on latest happenings in the government, his interviews and incidents taking place in the country. The rate of recurrence of his tweets his pretty high with almost 4-5 tweets a day. And the "cattle class" is laughing out loud.

Sushma Swaraj She has made her presence felt on social networking sites very prominently. Although she might not have an official Facebook page but her following is such that her community page on Facebook has approximately 95,000 likes. Also, she has more than 3 lakh followers on Twitter. She tweets approximately 2-3 times every 2-3 days. She has a maintained a playlist for her speeches on YouTube. An average of 33 videos is present with approximately more than 16 hours of duration.

Manmohan Singh Mr. Prime Minister has an official page on Facebook with more than 3.5 lakh fans. He tweets frequently and has a dedicated website on which one can find his speeches, press releases, photos and videos. His Facebook page is updated with latest activities in the government, PM's conferences and functions. He tweets on various social issues and latest happenings around the country.

The Penetration of Social Media in Governance , Political Reforms and Building Public PerceptionBy: Ratnesh Dwivedi Mr, Amity University,India

Abstract :

Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue. While we know that social media can play an important role in publicizing political activities such as protests, do we have evidence that such actions have led to substantive political change? Is it possible to develop a set of indicators to more effectively gauge the impact of new technologies and media on questions of political change? That social media can help coordinate large and discrete activities, such as protests and election observation, is clear. Is there any evidence that these technologies can help to improve day-to-day governance and improve political accountability? Moreover, as a transparency instrument, mobile governance relies on outflows of information from citizens to each other, and to governments and NGOs.

It is well understood that the media are not confined to print and broadcast. With the rapidly changing and converging technologies, new media, especially the ‘social media’ are also mushrooming and becoming part of everyday life of the informed netizens. As much as traditional media can promote good governance, social media are also playing important roles in this aspect.

The role of the media, including the social media, in promoting good governance are being recognized by the governments and policy-makers in various countries.

The most recent transformation of Egypt;s secular government was viewed in front of the world through traditional media and computer social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. The youth successfully used these modern tools to plan protests and create social and political change in Egypt In this new world, peoples’ sins can be broadcast from the rooftops quickly, and political leaders can be forced to follow higher standards in their personal and career actions or be forced to resign by the people. Thanks to revolution of social media or as Egyptian say-twitter revolution

Social Media - A Good Thing or a Bad Thing?

Social media is a good thing or a bad thing? That is the most frequently asked question today. Well, there are always two sides of everything; it depends on your perspective on how you perceive it. The same goes for social media, most people admire it as a revolutionary invention and some seem to take it as a negative impact on the society

Positive Effects-Friends and Relations:

Social networks started as a place to connect with your friends in an easy an convenient way. Truly speaking, many of you might have found your old pals from school or college who were out of touch due to one reason or other, well I would say I have and I thank social networks for this. Social networks has provided us the opportunity to connect with people and build better relationships with friends with whom we are unable to meet personally, and let them know about our life and take input about their lives and events happening with them.

-Reducing Communication Barriers: With social networks we are able to communicate our

thoughts and perceptions over different topics with a large number of audiences, and raise our voice. The sharing feature available on the social networks makes your opinion about any topic reach huge number of people (even to those who are not on your friends list). We have the option to make groups with people who are like minded and share the related news with them and ask for their opinion or input about the topic. Simply there are a number of options available for us to communicate with others on these social networks.

-Opportunities for Businesses: Social networks have become a crucial part of many of

us. We don’t even notice this but as soon as we open our desktops or laptops to access the web, we sub-consciously open our favorite social network just to see about the updates received. Businesses have noticed the value of social networks in our life, and they are using different techniques to promote their products. There are a number of customized applications being made on the social platforms, whose main purpose is to promote the product or brand. As social marketing is cost effective and brands have a huge audience, they are shifting more towards social marketing

Negative Effects:-Leads to Addiction: Many studies have shown that the extensive use of social media can actually cause addiction to the users. Throughout their day, they feel to post something on their pages or check others posts as it has become an important part of our life.

-Lead to Isolation: Extreme usage of social media has reduced the level of human interaction. Because of social networks the interaction with other people has become effortless and people have isolated their lives behind their online identities. Face to face communication and meetings has been reduced and many of us have lost the flavor and charm to be together under one roof.

-Affecting Productivity: Mostly businesses use social media to find and communicate with clients. But it is a great distraction to employees, who may show more interest in what their friends are posting than in their work tasks. Wired.com posted two studies which demonstrated damage to productivity caused by social networking. Nucleus Research reported that Facebook shaves 1.5% off office productivity while Morse claimed that British companies lost 2.2 billion a year to the social phenomenon. New technology products have become available that allow social networks to be blocked, but their effectiveness remains spotty

Conclusion:

So here i have mentioned a few positive and negative points of social media, but it doesn’t explain that social media is good or a bad thing. It stands somewhere in between. You will remain wary in spite of these examples that either social media is a good or bad thing for society? We would live to hear about your thoughts and opinion about the question raised… Do you think Social Networks are good or bad?

ThankyouPresented by : Richa RathoreBjmc -4th semReg.no :121002004