Six weeks, thousands of registered political parties, 97 crore eligible voters. India\u2019s General Election of 2024 was the biggest in history. It was also a template for a post-truth, post-climate change democracy. With summertime temperatures climbing to 45 degrees and higher, campaigning and running the election machine was extremely challenging for political parties. A stifling media environment with legacy news channels and most newspapers held captive by the ruling establishment and Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s government added to the uphill task for all Opposition parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We in the Opposition \u2014 struggling to breathe in the limited space India\u2019s Modi-fied democracy allowed us \u2014 were not the only ones trying to cope. The hapless Indian voter was also desperately attempting to keep herself informed and aware as she determined her franchise. What were the issues and themes that resonated with her or her fellow citizens? What was the truth behind the battery of data and the information blitz coming her way from the BJP and the government? In a media environment of compromise and negotiable facts, how does one delineate right from wrong? Simply put, how do you get the other point of view?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a time when this was easy and simple in India. That was also an easier and simpler India. There were honest, no-holds-barred debates and discussions on news television. Newspaper reports were trusted \u2014 they were bipartisan, if not neutral. Speeches and manifestoes of all major political parties were laid out threadbare. Today, India has 5,500 daily newspapers and 230 news channels, and yet the independent voice speaks in hushed tones. Encouraged by craven media barons, most publications and virtually every network have turned into brazen cheerleaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is this doing to political communication in what is still the world\u2019s largest democracy? It\u2019s putting power in the voter\u2019s hands, literally! The mobile phone has become the most potent election weapon \u2014 the ultimate medium of outreach and empowerment. That India has the biggest national YouTube audience \u2014 46 crore people \u2014 is, in a sense, an indictment of the country\u2019s formal or \u201cLegacy Media\u201d landscape and its fading credibility. Digital media and independent platforms rewrote the rules of political communication in Indian elections. To take one example, Ravish Kumar, a prominent and gutsy newscaster, was edged out of the NDTV network after it was bought over by a pro-BJP business tycoon. Today, Kumar runs his own YouTube channel. It has one crore subscribers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are many other former and formal journalists who have followed that route. Perhaps even more exciting \u2014 or sobering, for old-style media \u2014 is the new breed of citizen journalists. Very often Dhruv Rathee gets lakhs of views in the span of four to five hours; his YouTube feed has two crore subscribers. He\u2019s no trained journalist \u2014 just an engineer with a nose for research, a flair for prose and a hard-hitting style that conquers even his home-video skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prime Minister Modi himself is not unknown to this format. With two crore subscribers on YouTube, he\u2019s the most followed politician on the platform. But unlike television and 9 out of 10 newspapers, where friends and officials can \u201cmanage\u201d the competition, digital media isn\u2019t an opinion monopoly in India. Not yet. The past year has seen the emergence of the \u201cpolitician journalist\u201d; largely, Members of Parliament from the Opposition who have devised a new strategy to challenge Legacy Media. Rather than send articles that are rarely printed on editorial pages and give interviews that are cut to caricatures \u2014 or appear on channels where they would be shouted down and crowded out by biased anchors and other establishment proxies \u2014 they have set up their own platforms for direct digital outreach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tech is rudimentary, it could even mean shooting or recording videos on mobile phones. But the uptake has been fascinating. The disintermediation of political communication, reaching voters directly and bypassing distrusted go-betweens, is exciting. It revolutionised election communication, with virtual engagement taking the place of large public meetings that are not always feasible in the summer heat. Recently Kapil Sibal, an erudite lawyer-parliamentarian and former minister, launched his own YouTube channel. He says he intends an easy conversation that brings him to the \u201cdoorsteps of Indian citizens\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was the big story of the India Election 2024 \u2014 a digital insurgency that has upturned the mechanics of political communication. Maybe it\u2019s the future of politics in our unequal world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[This article was also published in The Indian Express | Friday, June 7, 2024]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How digital platforms overtook traditional media to reach the voters this election<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-articles-articles","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n