Bereft of any filters like in professional media and allowing anonymity, social media can be terribly dangerous. It degrades the sanctity of public discourse
The youth, as it is rightly said, is the bulwark of a nation, and its future. The quality of youth today determines the shape of a country's tomorrow. It is in this backdrop that I found the topic of a conference organised last week by Indraprastha University's Vivekananda School of Journalism and Mass Communication very relevant. It was an honour to address the inaugural function of the conference on Media and Youth Engagement: Change, Development, Governance and Participation. It is a no brainer that media is critical to engage youth in order to harness their power to bring about change and development. That the Government should consciously work to disseminate information for youth participation in governance is also something that needs no reiteration.
Given the proverbial demographic dividend that India is reaping, it is vital for the Government to engage youth in the process of building consensus on its policies and programmes. Media is an important tool for achieving that as well as inculcating amongst youth a desire to join the mainstream political process. A careful analysis of the media landscape — particularly the print, television and radio — brings out some fascinating findings. The media has increasingly aligned itself to the changing needs and aspirations of the dominant culture, which is often shaped by the ideas of the younger generation. As someone, who has been both a keen student of communication and practicing journalist for many years, I can't but marvel at the sophistication displayed by media organisations including The Pioneer in aligning to the yearnings of the young.
Be it the shift from black and white to colour, broad sheet to Berliner format, smart and trendy layouts, larger emphasis on visuals including infographics, or add on pages such as Avenues and VivaCity in this newspaper — the print media has constantly innovated in last 15 years or so. Similarly, the television and radio too have altered its content and presentation and they all seem quite in sink with the taste of the youth. However, one reason for this change, and especially more rapidly in recent years, has also been the rise of the social media. I distinctly remember how the front pages of newspapers rapidly started to metamorphose themselves by incorporating varied elements from the mid 2000s.
One could argue, the front pages started to resemble the home pages of web portals and this was in keeping with the new ways of news packaging and presentation, more attuned to the needs of the youth. Undoubtedly, the criticality of youth engagement through media gained a new dimension in the 2014 General Elections and subsequent State Assembly elections. Both the BJP and AAP added a new dynamism to the political discourse, largely designed to capture the imagination of the youth. Prime Minister Narendra Modi set a new benchmark in using this new form of media — the social media — to drive agenda-building and establishing a unique two-way communication with his audience, especially the youth.
In a fascinating study Social Media as a Platform for Incessant Political Communication: A Case Study of Modi’s “Clean India” Campaign', two Deakin University Professors Usha Manchanda Rodrigues and Michael Niemann quoting ANI said, “Modi and his Government are extensively using new media technologies and social platforms to not only inform the public about its policies but also as access to a large source of information about citizens' views and wants in terms of tweets and retweets, Facebook likes and comments, and ideas posted on various Government websites.” They further added: “Despite his landslide victory, 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.” In the 2014 election, they observed that, “then prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and his BJP used a number of social media networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Google+ to engage with many of the 150 million first-time youth voters.”
The study estimated that over 56 million election related tweets were posted during the campaign. This number is likely to grow manifold a year from now during 2019 elections, as Modi and his style has compelled all other political actors to follow social media very aggressively. The focus on the youth is going to get sharper by the day. However, one must be careful of the many associated pitfalls of this dynamic medium — and that's where traditional media, especially newspapers, retain a distinct edge. Bereft of layers of filters like in any professional media, and allowing enormous anonymity, social media can be terribly dangerous in spreading rumours and degrading the sanctity of public discourse. A no-holds-barred approach by some political leaders only adds to this potential threat that we should be wary of!
(The writer is a strategic communications professional)
