Discussion
Details
About the Panel
Digital media played a central role in the 2019 general election campaign. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was the first to use digital media in a big way in the 2014 Indian general elections, in 2019 virtually every political party used digital media to reach out to voters. The use of digital media was so widespread that the 2019 polls were dubbed by some as the 'WhatsApp election'. This was a reference to India being the biggest market for the Facebook-owned messaging platform, WhatsApp, which has over 200 million users in India, and its extensive employment by all political parties for campaigning. There is also evidence to show that disinformation spiked during the election campaign despite efforts by India's Election Commission and digital media companies. The panel will discuss the ways in which political parties used digital media during the 2019 election campaign, the extent of disinformation and the attempts to curb fake news.
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Program
2.30pm Registration and Tea/Coffee
3.00pm Welcome Remarks
Professor C Raja Moha
Director, Institute of South Asian Studies
National University of Singapore
ISAS-KAS Panel Discussion
The Role of Digital Media in the 2019 Indian General Elections
Chairperson
Dr Ronojoy Sen
Senior Research Fellow; and Research Lead (Politics, Society & Governance)
Institute of South Asian Studies, NUS
Panellists
Professor Sahana Udupa
Professor of Media Anthropology
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Dr Joyojeet Pal
Associate Professor
School of Information
University of Michigan
Mr Govind Ethiraj
Founder-Editor
Boom
Dr. Nalin Mehta
Executive Editor
The Times of India - Online
4.10 pm Question and Answer Session
4.50 pm Concluding Remarks
Christian Echle
Konrad Adenauer Stiftung
5.00pm End of Event / Tea Reception