The Big Connect: Politics in the Age of Social Media by Shaili Chopra

Author:Shaili Chopra
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9788184006087
Publisher: Random House Publishers India Pvt. Ltd.
Published: 2014-04-01T14:00:00+00:00

Source: www.india272.com

INDIA 272

By its own admission, this website is an online and on-ground volunteering platform to help the BJP in its mission towards gaining a 272+ seat majority in the 545 seat Lok Sabha in 2014. Its face is Narendra Modi, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate and it is driven by the idea that people want to hear from other people what Modi is all about. The landing page of the website carries videos of volunteers sharing their reasons for pitching in. It claims to be the perfect place for crowd sourcing ideas and putting them to work for Modi. It’s straight forward about its engagement with those who visit it and highlights, ‘facilitating a one to one communication medium with candidates and campaigns as we get closer to the Lok Sabha election’ as one of its primary motives. Videos with volunteers explain why they want to be part of the change in government and push for BJP’s prospects. The website also features a BBC report on Anuj Gupta, a volunteer for BJP’s digital campaign and how he quit KPMG to put his strong analytical skills to politics. The report cites the possibility that Gupta may be able to play a big part in turning around the nation.13

Outside of videos, the website has some interesting features including the option for fans and followers to upload hand written letters to visitors who come to the website. These come with suggestions, praise, and even poems. For example, for a Modi event planned in January 2014, the website invited people to register for a meeting with the PM candidate. But the meeting would depend on the work these volunteers have put in. And it did work.

There is a rather interesting element of the India272 website. It has a rewarding mechanism that creates competition within volunteers to do better and work harder. So a flowchart on http://volunteer.india272.com/cms/howitwork explains how people can garner loyalty points which ‘give you bragging rights with fellow volunteers and also a measure of your volunteering commitment.’ These points can be garnered when volunteers have something to show for their work online. So registered people can pick up tasks on offer. Some of these are translation of speeches that Modi has made, creating a catchy slogan, making presentations for BJP, writing poems or an anthem, and display creativity. For example, for a slogan, a volunteer gets five points and so on.

‘The cyber campaign—started before the 2007 assembly polls through the BJP IT Cell—used to be a more centralised process. But the structure has evolved into a more decentralised and amorphous one over the years,’ said Shashiranjan Yadav in an interview with India Today. Yadav is the former Vice Chancellor of Kutch University and architect of the BJP’s cyber campaign in Gujarat in 2007. ‘Now a large number of net-savvy BJP party workers and sympathisers are actively campaigning on cyber space largely on their own,’ he added.14

The mediums are many but the subject at the core is just one. At the end of the day, no matter what platform, all media messaging is decided by Narendra Modi.

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