Post on 17-Jan-2016
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Social Media and the political brand: A case of Narendra Modi
Joyojeet PalUniversity of Michigan
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ICTD and Political Cachet
Politics and Technology in India
The technology to aspire to…
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On Screen!
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Modi and the Media https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAGAYL8dtic
2002 Riots and After
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Central proposition Social Media, and Twitter specifically serve as a
tool in reshaping Narendra Modi’s political cachet Recast as technocrat
Artifacts as political (Winner) Categories as political (Bowker/Star)
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Growth strategy
2009 start
2010 <13k
2012 Oct, 1 Million
2013 Aug, 2 Million
2014 Jan, 3 Million
2014 May, 4 Million
2014 Jun, 5 Million
2015 Feb, 10 Million
Build on existing base
Re-brand
Ally
Trivialize
Ubiquitize
Followback
Consistency
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The anti-uncool
http://www.bjp.org/
IT Milan: Techie RSS meetings
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Preserving Icons
Technology as a means of exchange on nationalism
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Ally
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Trivialize: Mai Baap
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Ubiquitize
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youtube.com
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…even on Google+
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Who Speaks?
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followbacks
Obama campaign also used: Modi selective
1043 followbacks Celebrities Media Institutions Partner politicians Laypersons Karyakartas
Celebrity followbacks strategic Follows icons w/o reciprocity (Dhoni, Rahman) Icons who symbolize progress (Eric Schmidt, Bill Gates)
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Momentum
10.1 M followers
Did not slow down post election
28 M on Facebook
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Modi vis-à-vis typical political Twitter
Self promotion
Ritualized responses to events
Confrontation
Mostly positive
Banal / “Inspirational”
“India” instead of self
Frequent common man
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Re-brand
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Artifacts as political
Builds on previous Hindutva online base
Apps
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Artifacts as political
Who does a selfie appeal to?
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Artifacts as political
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Categories as political
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Categories as political
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Categories as political
Technology as a means of exchange on nationalism
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(two-way) Panopticon
Discipline from one format to another
Estimated 50,000 highly active followers
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(two-way) Panopticon
Identity online: A fifth of the sample changed their images post Modi follow
Terms like “India First” imply the identity is pan-Indian, not individual
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(two-way) Panopticon
The ‘tap’
Affirming loyalty Obama median
retweet 582 fav 607 Modi median
retweet 1735 fav 1107 *
Obama much more likely to go massively viral Modi 2x 10,000+ Obama 40x 10,000+
based on 3200 tweets from each compared between May 2013 and May 2014, bias for Modi related to post-victory push
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(two-way) Panopticon
Reminder from big brother
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(two-way) Panopticon
Organized Trolling
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Who won?
Point not that social media can win elections 155 urban constituencies 13/20 politicians with most followers lost LS in
2014 Yet most Tweeting politicians urban or national
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A means for speaking directly
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A Man For All Seasons
Beyond Hindutva, not past it
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Ahead
New challengers on the block
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Ahead The new word on
mediatization
Public Campaigns
New line in social media research
Cricket still the word!
Joyojeet@umich.edu
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