Campaigns, Digital Media and Mobilization in India

Early research in western contexts finds evidence of online participation leading to political engagement. The paper tests this hypothesis in a non-western campaign context, and discusses India’s complex “hybrid media system,” political parties, leaders, and issues in the 2014 national election that saw more use of digital information channels by all parties, and more so by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the young Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) than the incumbent Indian National Congress (INC). We hypothesize that online engagement and, specifically, sharing of campaign information is a significant predictor of political engagement in the campaigns of each of these three parties.