Politics in 2020
Do you know that it takes months to design a political campaign? I didn’t. The speeches you hear and the Twitter messages you read are not created overnight. Last week I was scrolling through IMDB’s highest-rated political movies and came across a film called “Brexit.” I remembered that name from the news. It was quite a hot topic last year, and when I clicked on the title to check the details, the case seemed to be very impressive. Benedict Cumberbatch is my favourite, the guy from the famous TV series “Sherlock Holmes” and “Doctor Strange” from the Marvel movies. I couldn’t resist clicking on the play button and what I saw in the next 2 hours was a real eye-opener for me.
I was astonished as well as impressed to know about the process. Dominic Cummings was the campaign manager of “Brexit Campaigns,” which eventually convinced the British voters to leave the European Union. But the thing which surprised me the most was the use of Digital Media to win that campaign. Surprisingly, the Facebook data of UK citizens were used to manipulate the voters!
Personally, I felt really exposed and helpless after reading that. “Cambridge Analytica” was the data provider who analyzed millions of personal data files about what they viewed, what they browsed, what they liked and ran billions of AI algorithms to design advertisements content for their Facebook campaigns funded by the big political parties.
The slogans, memes and messages used by political leaders on social media platforms are not random stuff. It takes the best brains to design the best content. Even a word as small as “hello” is decided by the team of highly trained marketing strategists. Leaders are told what to wear, what to speak or even how to speak.
Those are not just “smart words” recited by skilled orators that persuade voters, but it takes months and months of hard work for a team to understand voters’ opinion and their sentiments, which are then mixed together and a “campaign” is born.
But nowadays, the use of Digital Media in politics has taken it to another level. In India, the current ruling party has dedicated marketing teams to design memes against the opposition party leaders and float it over social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
The forwarded messages on Whatsapp promotes violence, bringing democracy to its knees. The protestors are being traced via artificial intelligence tools and are getting arrested, burying the independent voices.
The cheapest media source for a common man is news. Unfortunately, journalism seems to have taken the dark force’s side, exploiting the digital media resources by giving false information and showing biased opinions of ruling governments.
Being a responsible citizen, I am worried and perplexed about whom to support and connect the dots. I wish that the leaders, decision-makers of this digital evolution should understand the issues and take appropriate steps to introduce strict policies so that the real picture of politicians should reach out to voters.
