Social Media as a Platform for Incessant Political Communication: A Case Study of Modi’s “Clean India” Campaign

Authors

  • Usha M. Rodrigues Deakin University
  • Michael Niemann Deakin University

Keywords:

social media, Clean India, political communication, Modi and media, political campaign, Twitter

Abstract

The 2014 elections were dubbed the first “social media election” in India, when more than 56 million election-related tweets were posted during the campaign. Despite his landslide victory, Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to be in incessant political campaign mode on social media, launching the “Clean India” mission in late 2014 among other development-oriented initiatives. This research examines the effectiveness of social media as a platform for continuous dialogue with citizens in modern politics and its implications for the mainstream news media in India. The article uses the theoretical framework of agenda building in the digital age to outline the results of an empirical study that includes a social network analysis to profile Modi’s Twitter followers and the key influencers in the Clean India campaign. The study analyzes year-long Twitter data in relation to the Clean India mission to identify common terms and trends, relationships between supporters of this campaign on Twitter, crossover between social media and the Indian mainstream news media, and the news media’s response to the changed political landscape.

Author Biographies

Usha M. Rodrigues, Deakin University

Dr Usha M. Rodrigues is a Senior Lecturer in Journalism at Deakin University, Australia. Her current research focuses on contemporary journalism practices including social and mobile media.

Michael Niemann, Deakin University

Dr Michael Niemann is a Research Assistant and Digital Analysis Tools Developer at Deakin University, Australia. His research focuses on analysis of online dialogue using computational linguistics.

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Published

2017-08-22

Issue

Vol. 11 (2017)

Section

Articles

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