It helps them reach out to voters with vigorous campaigning
Social media is being used to spread messages across the globe within a span of a few seconds. Political parties too have adopted this medium to reach out to voters with vigorous campaigning on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. While some voters find it useful in learning more about the political leaders others do not completely trust the information available on the internet.
Businessman Sumeet Nanda says, “Campaigning by political leaders on social networking sites has made a huge difference. It has been very informative especially for the upper middle class section of society. Regular activity of the younger generation and the middle aged on Facebook and Twitter helps them in learning about the political parties through social media campaigns.”
On the other hand publisher and book distributor Sudhir Arora finds the information on social networking sites unreliable. “large quantity of information floats around on the internet, some of which is even contradictory and most of it unreliable. You never know if politician 'X' has posted about politician 'Y' instead of posting about himself.”
According to dentist Dr Aanchal Sharma, “Social media has a strong influence on
people and the power to shape their opinions. By aggressively campaigning through social media politicians are forcing their opinions on voters. Voters are not given space to judge the right leader for the nation themselves.”
School teacher Seema Singha says, “Yes, it creates awareness about prospective and existing leaders and their manifestos. One gets to know a lot about them, their achievements and even there hidden truths. One can also compare the candidates easily.”
Industrialist Hament Koorich remains neutral and states that he has not learnt much about candidates through social networking sites. “Whatever knowledge I have about our leaders is from past learning. I have not found much political activity on my Facebook profile.”
Filmmaker Anku Sharma said, “I would take my own decision rather than go with the voice of social media which is dynamic.”