INTRODUCTION:

India is a country of diversity, one among the top five countries with regard to the pace of growth in Internet users. India has now 462 million active Internet users. Nearly half of India’s population in the age-group between 20 and 59 years use most of the technology-driven communications to connect with the outside world. In India, being connected/linked to Social media is considered the epitome of success—be it entertainment, business, marketing, or political activism. Social media networking provides a valuable tool for political and social organisations for social activism and for mass protests on subjects of social interest.

Social media also helps in “setting the agenda” for traditional media like Radio, Television and newspapers, where in there is not only information transfer and dissemination but also sharing of information and participation in topics of social concern.

Prerna Kaul Mishra, Editor of India Today wrote in her article on the World Economic Forum website: “.the loop has finally been closed on a 360-degree newsroom, where television, print, digital news has been cemented and layered with user-generated content through tweets, Facebook posts, blogs, videos, Instagram photos and much more.” Media has changed from being a monologue to a dialogue, with open debates and personal opinions featuring in mainstream media. Social media has gone a step ahead, providing opportunities for the public to voice its opinion on topics of social concern.

Social media use for political mobilization:

Politics is a practice and theory of influencing other people in a global or civic level. It is basically a study of distributing power and resources among a particular community. As we all know, mass media plays a major role in building the bridge between the political parties and people. Due to advancement of technology, social media is now considered the ultimate medium to communicate with the public and vice versa.Social media has influenced politics and also increased the interest of people in politics.Political parties have now taken to social media as one of the most important channels for their public relations activities—almost every party having official pages on Facebook and using Twitter to post political updates, press releases and their campaign news. Recently, social media has been an integral part of politics and its growth seems to be both exponential and continuous.During the 2014 Indian parliamentary elections, everybody—from political party leaders to grassroot workers—leveraged social media to ensure that they reach out to a larger group of a diversified audience. This growth and popularity drew a great deal of attention from political communication researchers, to explore the political impact of social media serving as a means to obtain political information.

Politicians started with the development of static web pages for their party to promote their vision and mission tosociety together with their goals and other information. However, due to the impact of social media or Social Networking Sites in the mid-2000s, the majority of Politicians now rely on social media to keep the public informed of the happenings in their city and state. Communication through social media is entirely different from all other forms of media. It allows people to communicate—from their own perspective—and voice their opinions in matters of politics and, perhaps, protests. Social media has influenced politics and increased public interest in this sphere.

For instance, during 2008 US Presidential elections, the former U.S. President Barrack Obama used Facebook and Twitter as important tools to reach out to young voters. This exceptional way of campaigning and connecting made him a president with a vast difference in votes.

Anna Hazare, a social activist, used Facebook as a main connect to reach out to young people during his anti-corruption movement in 2012. Arvind Kejriwal, founder of the Aam Aadmi Party followed Obama’s Social Media strategy during State elections in Delhi 2008 and this strong segment helped him rise his power in the state. There are many other cases where social media has emerged as an imperative tool for political communication and encouraged public and netizens to voice their opinions, thereby breaching existing physical and social gaps.

Peace-building:

A great deal of human suffering is linked to violent conflicts, political instabilities, infringement of rights, which in turn requires increasing awareness for the need of the post-conflict resolution and building of peace. Boutros Boutrou-Ghali, then United Nations Secretary, was the person to coin the term “Peacebuilding” and also formulated the Agenda for Peace.Peace-building occurs before fighting happens; it is a process of strengthening society’s capacity during conflicts through non-violent ways. It is about bringing together individuals during times of conflict and protest in one accord and it is indeed a long-term transformation.

The main aim of this research paper is to explore how social media paves the way for peacebuilding with respect to politics in India.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The main objective of the present study is to understand the impact of social media in political communication and how it helps in peace building.

The specific objectives include:

· To identify social media platforms used by the public.

· To determine the impact and popularity of social media with respect to political communication.

· To study the peace building process that happens within opinions related to Indian politics in social media.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

Social media is defined as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technical foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content”³. Social media includes a multitude of sources of online information that are created, circulated and used by consumers to educate one another about products, services, and brands available in the marketplace⁴. Social media is a new venture in the field of mass media. It has proved to be more democratic than newspaper and television. Social media provides opportunity for netizens to express their views on a number of issues. In many cases, groups have been formed by likeminded people to discuss and debate on numerous governmental decisions and to seek new ideas for the future⁵. Another key contribution of this study is to propose social media as a preliminary tool for political expression. People keep in touch with friends and family, express themselves, and discuss various aspects of their lives on social media. In doing so, people tend to present a different aspect of themselves to each social group they encounter⁶, and the more groups they interact with, the more aspects of themselves they may develop⁷. The Main Core of this research is related to peace-building in political communication. Peace keeping is the aspect of ‘the maintenance of peace, especially the prevention of further fighting between hostile forces in an area’⁸. It may require the presence of internal and external forces to monitor and execute the truce between the opposing sides—a role that has been increasingly assigned to the United Nations (UN) Peacekeeping forces⁹. Peace-building, on the other hand, is a widespread concept that encompasses, generates, and sustains the full pattern of processes, approaches, and stages that is needed to transform conflict to more sustainable and peaceful relationships¹⁰.

Galtung¹¹ explained peace-building as a process of creating self-supporting structures that remove causes of wars and offer alternatives in war-like situations. Such mechanisms should be built into the structures of society and be present there as a reservoir for the system itself to draw upon, just as a healthy body has the ability to generate its own antibodies and does not need ad hoc administration of medicine^11,12.Castells¹³ has argued that the increased usage of the alternate media through the Internet in the twenty-first century demonstrates a ‘historic shift of the public sphere from the institutional realm to [a] new communication space’—one in which ‘insurgent politics and social movements can intervene more decisively’¹³. In fact, he asserts that ‘the media have become the social space where power is decided’¹³.At a glance, using the Internet and social media to seek information, including news, has been linked to greater political participation^{14, 15}. But social media are used for much more than seeking information, due to advancement of technologies social media contribute to new models of citizenship as emerging in younger generations¹⁶. Researches in this area has shown the importance of political expression in leading people to participate politically^17,18, and we confirm these pathways by focussing on this idea of relating social media and political communication and how it promotes or builds peace in a country like India.

METHODOLOGY:

Research Methods are used to determine, discover, interpret and formulate research facts. A quantitative research was proposed to find out the impact of social media on political peace-building. Purposive sampling was performed under different parameters relevant to the study. The Questionnaire method was followed for data collection from users for this study. A total number of 100 respondents was used for data collection. The responses are used for further analysis for the outcome of study objectives.

Analysis:

The central task of peace-building is to promote peace, which is nothing but building a solid equilibrium where in new disputes do not escalate into violence and war.

The analysis of the results from the respondents is listed below:

· Many of the respondents read and get information on contemporary issues through social media but they do not like to comment on political issues that come in their news feed. Many netizens do not share posts, videos or news on political issues.

· While many follow persons, pages or blogs that posts about contemporary political issues, they do not voice their opinions about government policies or about contemporary political issues on social media.

· Many confess that their political knowledge and awareness increased after they started using social media but they fear to engage in conversation with regard to political issues.

· The majority of the respondents believe that social media can be used for organizing protests, movements and political activities.

For this study on the peace building process in the political environment, a questionnaire method based on certain parameters like, Safety and Human Security, Conflict resolution, Voice for the Voiceless, Injustice, Social and Moral Integrity was followed.

Safety and human security:

Many of the respondents feel that Social media helps to shape citizens' views on political and social issues. While accommodating people with the latest updates on happenings, conflicts and protests, media personnel are at risk. But the support given by Facebook named “Facebook for Journalists” is much appreciated by both, the public and media personnel. They also believe that human security in social media does entail the well-being of individuals and responds to the ordinary person’s needs.

Conflict resolution:

Many of the respondents believe that Social media both creates and tries to resolve conflicts, to a large extent.They also indicate that social media help in building stronger state-citizen relationships and help to bring people together during times of conflict and protest. Through the platforms created by social media, people do not confront each other. Instead they conduct rational discussions, creating better understanding. Respondents also feel that there isn’t any regulation in social media during times of conflict and protest. They also believe that social media helps to promote peaceful conflict-resolution and allows humanitarian action in the area of politics.

Voice for the voiceless:

Many of the respondents feel that the social media is a “Voice for the Voiceless” through information sharing. They feel that the government does not have the right to take our voice away.Social media also helps in amplifying local voices and provides an open exchange of information and views.

Injustice:

The majority of the respondents feel that Social media is a platform for people to voice opinions with respect to matters of public concern and they also indulge in justified online discussions with greater credibility. Respondents also feel that social media platforms use a formula to decide when to post and where to post (i.e., it has to hit maximum Likes, Shares, and Comments).

Social andmoral integrity:

The majority of the respondents feel that Social media do provide a public sphere with integrity and confidentiality of shared content, mainly political issues. It also helps to benefit societies and governments to connect with people but also provide communication restrictions on political systems.Respondents also feel that the #hashtag revolution in social media give truth a power. They also feel that there is transparency in news content shared in social media.

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS:

Social Media helps in mobilizing people to take real actions, like signing up for a cause of human concern, making a political contribution by sharing the post or expressing their views. This expression or voicing their opinions makes a person a better citizen and a platform like social media helps in motivating this expression and grabs attention. This expression may change the observer to a participant, leading to a particular action of political concern.Studies also revealed that the majority of the respondents use Social Media to get news and information and to raise awareness and promote a cause. They also use it to connect with family and friends.With regard to promotion of peace in a country like India, some of the respondents feel that social media promotes conflicts rather than peace, whereas many of them believe that it works towards promoting peace.According the UN document, An Agenda for Peace, peace-building consists of a wide range of activities associated with capacity building, reconciliation, and societal transformation. It is a process that facilitates the establishment of peace and tries to prevent the repetition of violence by addressing to the root causes of conflict either through reconciliation, institution building, or political as well as economic transformation. The findings include: (i) Social media helps shaping citizens in views of political and social issues. (ii) Social media creates conflicts and also tries to resolve them to a greater extent. (iii) Social media also helps in amplifying local voices and have open exchange of information and views. (iv) Social media is a platform for people to voice opinions with respect to matters of public concern. (v) Social media do provide a public sphere with integrity and provide confidentiality of shared content, mainly political issues.It can thus be concluded that Social media is an alternative mode of communication, fusing human and technological dimensions of communities if used in an effective manner by all. Social media—if judicially used—could therefore be an effective platform for promoting peace within the political sphere of any country.

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Received on 24.10.2017 Modified on 02.01.2018

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2018; 9(1): 135-138.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2018.00024.4