SOCIAL MEDIA AND SOCIO-POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS IN INDIA: SLACTIVISM VS. ACTIVISM

SOCIAL MEDIA AND SOCIO-POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS IN INDIA: SLACTIVISM VS. ACTIVISM

The Internet has only about 6% penetration in India. These are words we repeatedly hear whenever there is a discussion about the power of social media and the Internet in general. Even though we say that the Internet penetration in India is very little, the figure in numbers is 100,000,000, as of 2010, which is a penetration of 8.5%. (Internet Usage and Population Statistics, 2010). In a country like India, even one percent is a few million people. That's not a discountable figure in a democracy. Therefore, the effect it has in the social context because of social media, cannot be undermined. This paper aims to study the effects of social media campaigns by doing a study on the socio- political campaigns in India. Some campaigns like the Pink Chaddi Campaign and the ??Support Anna Hazare Campaign?? have made extensive use of the social media. Social media activism today has come to be known as ??slacktivism?? as cited and explained in the further sections of this research paper. This research paper aims to find out if this term applies to activism on social media for socio-political campaigns in the Indian context. The aim is to understand if and how the social media has been effective in propagating different causes and how it has affected the new media users and sensitized them to issues. The implications of the findings, if proven that social media has a mass effect on the people of India, will be that using platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other public information sharing sites will have to be integrated into every social message that circulates around in the media industry and the loss the campaign will incur if this isn??t fulfilled.

NANDAKUMAR NAIR SWATI

Media Studies