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Sri Sathya Sai College for Women, Bhopal (Under Autonomous Scheme of U.G.C) NAAC Re-accredited Autonomous College under the UGC Scheme with 'A' Grade |
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Sri Sathya Sai College for Women, Bhopal (Under Autonomous Scheme of U.G.C) NAAC Re-accredited Autonomous College under the UGC Scheme with 'A' Grade |
I.T.Tool and social media effects political system
Minor Research Project
Funded by U.G.C.
F.No.:MH - 208/102054/XII/14- 15/CRO
2015 - 2017
Information Technology is an important emerging sector of India. The Government has identified IT Industry as one of the major industry in India and it plays an important role in achieving the policy objective.
The analysis of the collected data in the project highlights the increasing role of media and IT tools in the present Political system and its impact on socio-economic conditions. It highlights the impact of traditional media and the fast growing social media on the thought process of the people and its influence on the viewpoint of the population regarding political system across all genders, age groups and areas.Media and IT tools have an impact on the awareness level of the people at both urban and rural level across different age groups. The effective use or misuse of these tools will have far reaching consequences and will be key to the success or failure of political parties in future elections. Hence it becomes important to study the impact of these tools in detail. As per the respondents, these tools are considered to be an important change agent in the present political system.The survey has been designed to capture the divergent views of the people in both rural and urban areas and their views about overall efficacy of the govt. schemes and policies to increase the penetration of digital media so that it reaches out to the masses and increase computer literacy.
A detailed analysis of the data captured in the survey clearly reflects that the influence of traditional media like TV, radio, news room discussions, print media etc. have gradually increased over a period of time and has clear impact on the thought process of the people on political developments, viewpoints and in turn affects their voting pattern, but because of fast internet penetration over the last few years, the social media and various communication platforms linked to social media are gradually getting prominence and will play more important role in the future. It is increasing at a fast pace.The influence of media & IT on the political system is also clearly visible on the high rankings given on the scale, in which most of the respondents believe that the media and IT Tools played a very important role in influencing voting pattern in last Lok Sabha elections and these tools were utilized effectively by the winning party.
This research project was mainly aimed and designed to study the growing awareness of different media options and IT tools among the people and its influence on their thought process related to the current political system and to study whether it ultimately impacts their voting pattern by creating a viewpoint or image of the candidates or political parties in their minds. At the same time, the survey also aims to study the role of fast growing social media and internet penetration among both urban and rural population, its utility in present political scenario, understanding its growing influence on the citizens
A random sampling methodology was done for collecting the data with a view to capture the responses from males and females of different age groups from rural and urban areas to gain insight from different section of the society. On the basis of primary and secondary data which were collected from the survey following conclusions can be drawn after calculation using percentage method and detailed analysis of the data.
2. Popular media like television, radio and other popular social media sites have significant affect in influencing political views, knowledge of the people and thereby bringing an overall change in the current political system.
3. Respondents are aware of effective laws to ban and restrict sensitive political information on TV and other social media but a significant number of respondents also consider that most of the broadcasted information related to politics and election are manipulated.
4. Media, I.T tools and Social Media sites play significant role in present political system by raising political awareness at village level.
5. There is high awareness and significant impact of government run IT skill development program and government is using I.T. Tools in ideal form for conveying its policies and various program and these are aimed at upliftment of nation.
The overall response from the survey is that, although the Government is making efforts at proactive expansion and monitoring of IT tools and programs, but most of the respondents are not aware of the programs and don't find it to be much effective also there is lot of scope for improvement in conveying it's programs using various advertising and promotional mediums.
Challenges:
Suggestions
Contribution to the Society: The society is largely impacted by the political scenario prevalent at that time period. The policies, development programs, various government schemes etc. largely impact the society and the lifestyle of the people. It is thus becoming more important to make the generation more aware and informative about the changes which are happening at a fast pace. This will enable them to elect a government which is proactive to growth and development of the society and for the nation.
The traditional media and new age social media are playing a very important role in this scenario and need to act responsible for the welfare of the society. The project aims to have a better understanding of the role of different media in the thought process of the people at both rural and urban areas and the impact of various governments run IT programs. Better understanding and awareness among the people of the dynamics of complex political system will help them in making the informative and correct choice while exercising their voting rights will which contribute to the society in the long run. This will also create pressure on the political parties to refrain from caste based, religion based politics and work towards growth and development of society and nation. They will eventually focus more on performance. Much detailed surveys are required to be done to gain in depth analysis and understanding of the role of different media and its influence in our country with such diversified culture, religion, educational background and ethnicity. This has to be a continuous process and aimed at getting more insight of the fast changing dynamics of political scenario in the country.
