SOCIAL MEDIA AS A TOOL FOR POLITICAL MOBILIZATION: A STUDY OF YOUTH IN DELHI

Abstract

From communication to social awareness and from education to political mobilization, it would not be wrong to say that social media has made its foray in all spheres of our lives. Particularly, when we talk of social media and political mobilization, the impact that today social media has on its users and specifically the engagement that its users have with the same is tremendous. It is because of the massive impact of social media on its users that today, be it a local election or the election on a larger scale, the campaigning is not deemed to be complete without taking into account the social media strategy of the same. From analysis of the parties’ policies, programmes, candidates to even the performance, every aspect can be tracked and also largely depends on social media. Also, social media allows the politicians and political parties to connect directly with the masses at a lesser cost and greater reach in comparison to the traditional media. The figure itself establishes the reach that social media possess in the present day and needless to say that youth form the majority of social media users in India.

Thus, the paper intends to examine the way youth (15-24 years of age) consume the political issues or political discussion on social media. The study would be quantitative in nature. It would be conducted by survey method, using questionnaire as tool on 100 respondents. Also, the results would primarily focus on the preferred social media platform by respondents, vis-à-vis political communication, their decision making etc.