The Political Communication Of India

The semi semipolitical Communication Of IndiaIn the early years of Indian Independence political talk was considered to be addressing peaceful rallies and dropping option pamphlets from a plane to persuade the Indian Voter. The post full(a)ization has already seen three paradigm shifts, Firstly the Nehruvian Socialism in the 1960s, then the hard lined plain of Indira Gandhi and economic freedom in the 1990s. the liberalization of the Indian economy has changed the way of conference ranging from cable television to telecommunication and then bringing on to the online platform. to begin with the communication during elections customd to take place in rallies and depended a lot on politicians interpersonal skills. But the political parties ar soon realizing the importance of this digital Era to connect with the y turn outh of the country. The Political parties know that the jejuneness are going in the transformation from digital Migrants to Digital Natives. They are look wit h their straight identities on the Digital platform. This requires the political parties of India to adopt methods which befool been never adopted before. In the recently hard fought Lok Sabha choices of 2009, all major political parties of India had hired Ad and Media Agencies to manage their Brand Image.Understanding Political CommunicationPolitical communication is a sub-field of political science and communication that deals with the production, dissemination, procession and effects of information, both with media and interpersonally, within a political context. This includes all usage of Media, speeches by politicians, Opinion leaders in the community to influence the decision process and it also includes the orb and informal discussions in the general public.The Study of Political Communication revolves around 3 basic elements.The Political companyThe VoterThe Medium of communicationThe Political fellowshipAs per the Ace Electoral Network, A political fellowship is defi ned as an organised group of hoi polloi with at least or so similar political aims and feelings, that seeks to influence public policy by getting its candidates elected to public office.Political parties perform key tasks in a popular society, such asAggregating and articulating needs and problems as identified by members and supportersSocialising and educating pick outrs and citizens in the functioning of the political and electoral system and the generation of general political valuesBalancing opposing demands and converting them into general policiesActivating and mobilising citizens into participating in political decisions and transforming their opinions into viable policy optionsChannelling public opinion from citizens to governmentTo perform these in a higher place mentivirtuosod key tasks, the political political troupe should be able to communicate their objective clearly to their Voters. With the increase in the number of averages a party can white plague to commu nicate with their voter, a consistency in the communication objective should be must(prenominal). Communication objective is derived from the Brand Proposition the party wants to display to the general public. Harrop (1990) perceives political marketing as being non just or so political advertising, party political broad drips and electoral speeches but covering the whole area of party positioning in the electoral market.Maarek (1995) conceptualises political marketing as a complex process, the outcome of a to a greater extent(prenominal) global effort implicating all the factors of the politicians political communication. Maarek explained the Difference between commercial marketing and political marketing.Figure 1 Commercial and Political Marketing, two parallel strategies.In the above figure Maarek tries to sharpen out the difference between Commercial Marketing and Political Marketing. Such a parallel cannot be drawn, as a partys product consists not of its political communi cations but ofa) Its ideological platform and its set of policy proposals.b) The party leader, the candidates and party officials.In Maareks view, political marketing has become an integral and vital role of political communication. In his words Political communicationencompasses the entire marketing process, from preliminary market study to testing and targeting.The VoterThe aim of any case of communication is to convince the receiver. completely marketers try to convince their customers about the product. Here the marketer is the political party and the customer is the voter. But on that point are certain differences between mainstream marketing and political marketing with respect to the voter.Lock and Harris (1996) identify four main differences between mainstream and political marketingAll voters vote on the same day, everyone makes choice as per their own methods or requirements in that respect is no cost attached to mold a mandate for a detail party, whence no cost when considered from an individual point of view but a very huge cost from a societys point of view.Even though you must contribute voted for a particular party, even though its not elected ,you will have to live with it.There is no choice to vote for a political party or the candidate, basically the service springinessn is unbundled. The candidate and the political party both are generally taken into consideration time ma king the choice.The main role of PR activities is to improve the perception of the political party or the candidate. Today political parties are involved highly in PR activities during elections the Bhartiya Janata political party had the India Shining bleed in 2004 which triggered a new PR era in Indian Politics. The Congress party ran the Secular campaign successfully in 2009. No political party has left any stone unturned in the field of PR, whether it is print or television or even digital.The Indian Voter today is exposed to a minimum of three distinct div ersitys of medium in a day, it is important to reach out to this person when its most effective. It is very difficult to improve the perception of the candidate or the party in a short term it requires a foresighted term perspective with a consistent proposition to the voter.The MediumThe early beginnings of democratic thought in the eighteenth century, political philosophers have recognized the of the essence(p) role of un-inhibited public debate and free speech, which was later, extended to the demand for a free press (Voltmer, 2007)The notion of a marketplace of ideas is based on the liberal belief that no single agency be allowed to have the utmost say on the course of politics. Rather, it is through public exchange of argument and counter-argument that the truth eventually emerges (Mill 1859, reprinted 1974). From the perspective of the marketplace of ideas argument, the media are usually assigned a more passive role, serving as a forum where a contour of groups and indivi duals are wee-ween the opportunity to express their views. Arguably the mass media serve as the main link between governments, political parties, candidates, etc. and voters, as the opportunities for like a shot communication between citizens and their representatives are extremely limited both in terms of the scale of the audience reached and the scope of the issues covered. that, the media are not just conduct conveying the messages politicians want them to communicate to voters. They are also active participants in the creation of political messages (Cook 1998).In a democracy like India, The medium of communication is the single most important factor through which political parties reach out to the plenty. Political Speeches, coverage, events are all part of the medium of communication. Even abominate speeches, rally by political parties provided make sense if they are reported by the print or the television medium. In the print there are articles that report the unfolding of different events through the day, the television has live screening of interviews and events. As film stars became popular figures in Indian politics, movies became an important medium of political communication. This all is the part of the medium through which political marketing talks place.Today the digital medium is yet another medium which cannot be ignored by any political party. Blogs, Social media, web aims, email, viral marketing and websites itself has brought about a paradigm shift in ways political parties could present itself to the voter. The print and television mediums are generally active only during election campaigns but the digital medium is generally active all through the year.The Digital Medium The Game ChangerNot so long ago, Television and Print were the mainstays of most marketers media plans with radio and outdoor and a few other things change in the gaps where appropriate. Even with the emergence of the internet in the late nineties television comme rcials were firmly favored by the dotcoms as the way to build their brands. The internet is now over a decade, its certainly isnt new .In fact, any product that advertised itself as new ten years on would be laughed at or even sued by the authorities . Today Digital channels are mass and mainstream reaching global audiences. For usage in some markets, a popular website can reach a staggering part of the population. Its not just the big portals or sociable networking sites that command large audiences. Perez Hilton, the web king reaches an estimated 5 million people daily via the blog. (David Meerman ,2004)While digital channels are now mass, they can also be extremely targeted allowing for singular interactions with consumers. This is one of the defining benefits of new media. Marketing through the digital platform can be extremely change in many ways. Personal Emails or SMSes capacity be tailor made to suit every individual needs. They can be bailiwick differentiation also, as different mailers could be sent to different individuals based on their likes and dislikes. refreshful Media are essentially social. Everything in digital format can be easily replied to by everyone. The best part of digital medium, that it can be viral. Any exciting piece of communication through the digital medium can be easily replicated and produced in the same form. There are basically two types of Digital Marketing. The first one is the charge strategy and the second is the push strategy. The pull strategy basically consists of attracting consumers/visitors to a particular website or a blog or even watching a video (youtube). Here the initiative is on the consumer to visit the particular digital platform. The pull strategy requires a substantial marketing budget as the numbers of competitors are more. Also the pull strategy does not allow you to be personalized to the user, as the same discipline is viewed by all viewers. The push strategy basically consists of sending emai ls and SMSes to the target audiences. The push strategy could be extremely personalized, for example a political party could send in different SMSes to people of a region affected by floods and a different message to people affected by Naxal issues.Use of Internet as a Political Communication ToolThe internet is a perfect example of customer centricity in political communication. The internet acts as a one stop platform for people to interact with politicians, discuss their problems. The primary problem in India was that people were purpose it tough to connect with politicians except during elections when politicians wanted their mandate. The internet as a platform itself can act as a connection tool for the people with the politicians. But internet is not utilized to its true potential internet is often seen as a tool to spread awareness about a politician or a political party. (David Meerman ,2004)Before the internet platform emerged, it was believed that the people would go to t he administration for alleviate or issues, but the internet could give way to a system which would bring the government and political parties to the people. The focus of the internet could be to hark back efficiency in the system which will indirectly benefit the government. But the important thing with the internet is that the tool works best when the consumer uses it for a dialogue and not a monologue.Online toolsThere are a variety of tools available today for use of political communication. These tools are generally used by the people for entertainment or networking purposes. These tools can consist of blogs, social networking sites, news sites, video streaming and group sites. These tools can be used by have great political applicability. These tools can be used to generate public attention and also to act as points of salience. The internet is generally open systems and are accessible all public. The internet today has no addiction on computers as the internet can be access ed through mobiles. Every tool present on the web today has a specific use and can be used to target niche audiences.Importance of juvenility in electionsThe analysts believe that the segment of callowness would be the most critical in the forthcoming elections. Unfortunately this segment has registered a dismal participation in the elections upto this point. This segment of youth is identified as being rationale and will be having the capability of taking decisions. This segment can easily identify the right and wrong between things, they understand the importance to cast votes in elections too the only thing that is lacking is a platform to connect with this target audience. The political parties today should be involved in giving out communication messages which are more relevant in times of today. The youth of today feel that they are disconnected with politics just because of the lack of use of appropriate communication tools by the political parties. That is why it is very i mportant to understand the consumption of messages by this segment.Understanding the Psyche of the Indian youth in ElectionsThe Indian youth is one of the largest segments of the Indian Society they surpass any other segments present in the Indian Voting Canvas. In the recent Lok Sabha elections of 2009, the voter turnout percentage among the youth was an abysmal 20%. The influencers in the case of youth are their parents, if the parents decide to cast their vote then the youth generally follow them otherwise they dont cast their vote. Most of the youth today does not find it intriguing enough to talk about politics, the trend is slowly changing but it is still an urban phenomenon. Most of the youth today look at the Election Day as a holiday they generally plan out long pass holidays on account of election days. The youth of today believe in the verbalize Be the change, they volunteer to NGOs and help other organization, they firmly deem that rather than relying on politicians or political parties, they themselves take the onus of changing the landscape of this country.Generally Youth does not cast their vote on the pretext of saying that their vote does not make a difference. The youth of today in the range of 20- 25 years, have seen all the major political parties at the marrow squash (1996 2009), so the feeling of nothing changing in the Indian Landscape is pretty evident. The youth also believe in the fact that they have never been asked to vote. When researched this led to the vicious cycle phenomenon in Indian Politics, the Indian urban segment and youth are the two segments which generally registers the lowest amount of voting percentages. This is the primary reason why politicians and political parties pay very less or no attention to them. Due to no attention to them the youth do not get any personalized or communication that makes relevance to their life during election days. Many youth of today feel that the process of casting votes is a tedi ous one, as one never know how to register and when and where to vote. Before the Jaago re campaign, there was no particular online platform which educated the youth about the process of casting votes.Need and Rationale for the StudyChanging voter profile of the country The voter profile of this country is fast changing, the scurrying the political parties adopt the change, better will be the results for the political party in the Long run.Media fragmented As the media of today is getting more and more fragmented, the traditional means of reaching the voter might not work, and innovative means of reaching the same voter might be needed.Americanization of Politics in India Learning from the recently concluded Americas Presidential elections, the use of social media had been used exhaustively along with other online tools. This can pave the way of the changing political propaganda as it takes place todayResearch DesignLiterature ReviewKnowledge and LearningsContent Analysis of Web sitesConclusion/ RecommendationLearningsExpert InterviewsResearch Objectives chase are the research objectivesTo analyze and compare the websites of different political parties and understand their offering in the digital mediumTo analyze the different promotional activities through with(p) by political parties on the digital platform.Research MethodologyInformation gathered through entropy published, websites, reports. The books and articles for reference would be sourced from the KEIC library of Mudra Institute of Communications, AhmedabadIn -Depth interviews would be conducted with professionals from the digital marketing industry and the people responsible for PR of political parties.Content Analysis of Websites would be done of the websites of the major political parties of IndiaThe content analysis of websites will be done on several labels like Information on the website, Informing the people, engagement with people, appeal to people , media releases given on the website an d transparency achieved by the websiteContent Analysis in general is conducted in several discrete stages. Although the following stages are given in sequence, they need not be followed in the same order.Formulate the research question Analyzing and comparing websites of different political parties in India ( Four national parties are taken in the consideration set)Define the population in question The population would be all the data that is available on the internet about these political parties. study an appropriate sample from the population The sample for population would be the websites of these parties. (Official websites)Select and define a unit of analysis The unit of analysis would be the pages on the website. Each page would be analysed from the website. The units would be Information of the web siteInteraction with commonwealthAppeal to the peopleService to the peopleMedia Coverage and man RelationsTransparencySamplingA panel of experts from the digital marketing indu stry would be chosen with their political knowledge in mind. For selecting the panel snowball sampling would be usedThe sample for selection of websites would be of the four national political parties of IndiaResearch QuestionsSome sample questions which would be asked to the panel of experts would be as followsHow important do you feel is the online platform in todays age for political parties?Describe what is the appropriate time for political parties to use the online platform?Where is the online platform best likely to fit in the entire process of political propaganda?Could you tell us some campaigns which u liked/disliked by political parties?What would be the extent of use of online platform in political campaigns, five years down the line?LimitationsConfidential information would be withheld as the study of research is sensitive subject which is politicsData CollectionThe data collection was done in two phases for the Four subject area Parties of India. This was decided by the number of seats won by each of these parties in the recently concluded General Elections. The initial data was collected on January 5 January 7 2010. This data was recorded in an Excel sheet based on the selected variables. After this interviews were taken with the Media / PR heads o the respective(prenominal) political parties. This helped me in bungle checking and validating their claims about the website and also to help me fill in gaps during my initial collection. Also a link analysis was done to check the traffic for these websites during the election period, as these links are more active during election periods.Data and AnalysisThe research would be done on the following websitesNational PartyWebsite URLIndian National Congress (INC)http//www.congress.org.in/http//www.congress4india.com/Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)http//www.bjp.org/http//www.bjpindia.in/Samajwadi Party (SP)http//www.samajwadipartyindia.com/http//www.spmumbai.org/index.aspxBahujan Samaj Party (BSP)http// bspindia.org/http//www.bahujansamajparty.net/The Research was done on two websites of each political party. The first data collection was carried out on January 5 January 7 2010 and the second data collection was done between February 5 February 7 2010. The purpose was to find if the websites were updated. In all cases however the content was not changed.Findings of the ResearchThe political parties have yet not realized the importance of the updates of the websites. They did not update the sites on a day to day basis, although it is technologically possible to update the contents in real time today.The sites of the Indian National Congress and the Bhartiya Janata Party are more updated than the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party. There are more than 32 features on the INC website put together compared to 29 of the BJP party. The Samajwadi party and BSP havent updated their sites since a very long time they have far less features than compared to the counterparts.The better c ontents and updates in the BJP site could be attributed to the experience of the BJP elections n 20004. New Media including internet was used extensively during the elections of 2004. BJP has hired a New Media agency for handling only their New Media campaigns in 2009. INC lagged behind in the use of internet during the elections so far and appeared to have attempted to thingmabob up with the BJP.BJP has sites for all the states of India these are for the local communication in the state. BJP had the India Shining campaign as the theme in which the party had extensively used New Media.Language of the Content of WebsiteMaharashtra state has the local language called Marathi and Gujarat has Gujarati. There are 71, 936,894 (6.99% of the total population) Marathi Speaking people in India where as 46,091,617 (4.48% of total population) people of India articulate Gujarati. This is against 90,000,000 (10.66% of total population) in India. Yet the parties have totally neglected the region al language. No one has given regional font for download.Campaign Strategists bank heavily on the local language to write text for bills, posters, billboards, and advertisements etc. Hence logically they should write contents of the sites in local languages to reach majority voters. However this study revealed that the sites depended only on English.None of the all the eight websites of political parties in Maharashtra and Gujarat had site analytics , date of the last update of the website and site map.The date for last updating is necessary in some situations. For Example political parties announce their candidates for elections in two three phases or more. They announce various lists and it changes even afterwards announcements. If the date of last updating is given, the visitors of site can easily come to know whether it is an odd list or the latest one. This happens with other types of content too. come in Map is a feature that helps the user to easily locate the needed inform ation on that site. They also act as a navigation facilitate by providing an overview of sites content at a single glance. If the number of links is very large, the site map helps visitors to access all content on the site.Webmaster details of the webmaster (email, phone or fax) are necessary because a visitor can write to him/her in case the site or part of it does not function. All sites had Telephone number to only the head quarters and no region wise contacts.All sites had given the indication of a copyright. This prohibited others from using the website content for free. Visitors counter is another feature which is neglected by these sites , the visitor counter helps getting everyone an idea about the popularity and utility of the site.Unit Analysis of WebsitesInformation of the partyIndian National CongressThe site of the Indian National Congress had given Information about the history of the party , the latest manifesto, List of candidates and the received Office bearers.B hartiya Janata PartyThe Bhartiya Janata Party had given Information about the Organisational Structure of the Party, History of the party, List of states under BJP rule and the current list of Member of parliamentSamajwadi PartyThe Samajwadi party had given information regarding the performance of the party in the recent elections and the list of candidates for the Lok Sabha Elections in 2009. There was no mention of any kind of History of the party and the party manifestoBahujan Samaj PartyThe Bahujan Samaj party website was more focuses only on current activities of the party and no information about the past. They didnt have the list of candidates or constituency which they have won in the recent elections. There was no mention of any kind of organisational structure in the party.There was no mention of Alliance partners of any of the websites under perviewInteraction with PeopleIndian National CongressThe website of the Indian National Congress had given option to stage their feedback, comments, suggestions and complaints. There was no Toll free number mentioned on their website.Bhartiya Janata PartyThe Bhartiya Janata party was more people and new media friendly they had subscription to RSS feedThey also had an opinion poll on their website to know peoples view on a particular issue.Samajwadi PartyThe website of the Samajwadi Party had only contact numbers of the head office and respective branch offices. They had no other latest interactive features on their website.Bahujan Samaj PartyThe website was least interactive among websites of all the parties. The party was more interested in a monologue and not a dialogue with its voters. The website had no links or any other such things to keep the voters updated on the happenings.Appeal to the peopleIndian National CongressThe Website of the Indian National Congress does not appeal to vote for it incomplete their alliances. There is no way that anyone interested in connective the party could apply for a p osition. There was no appeal for a largess for a noble cause.Bhartiya Janata PartyThe Website of the Bhartiya Janata Party does not appeal to vote for it neither their alliances. There is no way that anyone interested in joining the party could apply for a position. There was no appeal for a donation for a noble cause.Samajwadi PartyThe Website of the Samajwadi Party does not appeal to vote for it neither their alliances. There is no way that anyone interested in joining the party could apply for a position. There was no appeal for a donation for a noble cause.Bahujan Samaj PartyThe Website of the Bahujan Samaj Party does not appeal to vote for it neither their alliances. There is no way that anyone interested in joining the party could apply for a position. There was no appeal for a donation for a noble cause.Service to the peopleIndian National CongressEvery website should be user friendly at the base level and somehow it should help us in the entire process of voting. The websit e of the Indian National Congress had no links for whats new on the website, FAQ s etc.Bhartiya Janata PartyThe website of the Bhartiya Janata Party had links whats new is happening to the political party in India. There was no service of any kind to the people.Samajwadi PartyDuring Elections, finding your name on the voters list is one of the most tedious tasks for any voter. Samajwadi Party is the only party which is providing voters list to its users. This is one of the most useful features on any of the websites.Bahujan Samaj PartyThere is no feature of any kind on the Bahujan Samaj Party Website. The lowest on service to people.Media Coverage and Public RelationsIndian National CongressThe Media Coverage and Public Relations is an integral part of any website, it gives you a coverage on the latest happenings of the political party. The media coverage in the INC website give you info only on the election results and not on the party achievements in each of their state.Bhartiya J anata PartyThe BJP Website has put photo gallery section at the front of their home page and audio-video features to attract the visitorsSamajwadi PartyThe Samajwadi Party has their media section updated and it has given it list of latest joins in the party on the website. The party is not in power in any state so its only mentioned its achievements when they were in powerBahujan Samaj PartyThe Bahujan Samaj Party uses it website to effectively communicate its latest achievements, particularly in the state of Uttar Pradesh where its a ruling party. Other News of the party is lost in the clutter of information which is present in the website.TransparencyIndian National CongressTransparency is one thing that the Indian voter likes to see with every political party. The site didnt try to remain bold about declaring the assets of their candidates even though it was a simple thing to do. All the details of assets of a particular candidate are given on the site of the Election Commissio n of India.Bhartiya Janata PartyThe site didnt try to remain transparent about declaring the assets of their candidates even though it was a simple thing to doSamajwadi PartyThe site didnt try to remain transparent about declaring the assets of their candidates even though it was a simple thing to doBahujan Samaj PartyThe site didnt try to remain transparent about declaring the assets of their candidates even though it was a simple thing to doUnit Analysis of WebsitesINCBJPSPBSPInformation on the WebsiteInteraction with peopleAppeal to People