The media, the social media and the elections

This chapter provides a snapshot of politicians and mainstreammedia’s engagement on social media platforms, particularly Twitter. The chapter, based on preliminary analysis, explores the extent to which some of the political parties relied on social media as a vehicle for their conversation with their followers, and the mainstream media’s opportunistic utilisation of this free-for-all information source to know what is happening on the ground. The chapter also points to a nexus between the politicians, mainstream media and social media during the 2014 General Election campaign in India.