Politics and web2.0 - Can this be a successful marriage?
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Political parties have started realizing the strength of the internet, the recent controversy around orkut bares evidence to the same. India has a high number of political parties that address (or tries to address) different problems faced in India. Most of these political parties have websites, which promote their party ideology. But most of these websites are static and very rarely updated. In a recent article in the Indian Express ,it was noted that Jammu and Kashmir’s political parties are going online.
Interestingly, the party associated with Omar Abdullah, is currently also in process of going online, the only difference being they are going interactive too. The website, that is still not launched, has a section for a blog. This brings us to the point, that can political parties and web2.0 marry and be successful at it?
Lets look at an international website to answer the above question. John Edward who is contesting for the 2008 presidential election in USA, is the ultimate example of the advantages web2.0 can have on politics. His Blog, has examples of live blogging of his events. They have so much so as tracked people’s blog, who visited a particular event and published it on their website. They have extensively used flickr and Youtube on their site and have even given the option of recording comments on the website. John Edward is said to be using twitter the most to be in close contact with his audience. A website in America also has video widgets of different politicians who are contesting for the elections that can be embedded on ones blog as a sign of support.
While looking at the above example we need to comprehend that American online audience is far more advanced than India, but to ignore the fact that after Brazil, India has the most number of users on orkut, would be unwise. To add to the statistics 24% of the audience in India that reads blogs online found political blogs interesting. If political parties begin to actively engage in the online sphere they will be able to connect with a lot of the youth of India, that is project to be 76% of the total population in 2015 (IAMAI) Besides using blogs, politicians can be a part of the social networking phenomena instead of trying (in absolute vain) to stop it. As the saying goes for “if you cant beat the system be a part of the system”. You tube as a medium can also be used to showcase social work done by the politicians. Indian politics now also has many young enthusiasts like Rahul Gandhi, Milind Deora, Sachin Pilot who can use this medium to better connect with today’s youth who are reluctant to vote.
But as every coin has 2 sides lets just hope the use of the interactive medium doesn’t lead to online political riots:P
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