Rajyalaxmi Kukkala
Political Science
March 2022
We may reasonably argue that social media has permeated every aspect of our life, from political mobilisation to education and from communication to social awareness. The impact that social media has today on its users—more precisely, their involvement with it—is enormous, especially when it comes to social media and political mobilisation. Due to social media's enormous influence on its users, campaigning for elections—whether local or national—is now considered incomplete without taking into account the campaign's social media strategy. Every facet of the parties' platforms, programmes, candidates, and even performances can be monitored and is heavily reliant on social media. Additionally, compared to traditional media, social media enables politicians and political parties to communicate directly and more widely with the public at a lower cost. The number by itself illustrates the current reach of social media, and it goes without saying that young people in India make up the bulk of social media users. Analysis of social media posts in a Facebook group centred on the topic of Indian high-stakes testing refusal was done to learn more about how people and groups utilise social media to participate in political protest against educational policy. Facebook posts were classified according to three main themes: the reasons for not supporting high-stakes testing; if the posts mentioned traditional or virtual forms of political protest; and whether the posts included links to other social media platforms. In order to enhance the Facebook analysis, interviews with participants in the Test Refusal Movement were carried out. These interviews offered a more detailed perspective of how movement members operate in online affinity spaces and how new forms of protest have altered, but not replaced, traditional political protest against policies
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