Political Economy of The Digital Media in India: Public vs Private Intrests

Abstract

India is turning into a crucible of experiment in Digital space with 480 million (48 crore) internet users in India (as of December 2017). Mobile subscriber penetration has crossed 1.19 billion mark during the same period. Will this penetration of new media technologies lead to rewriting theory of political economy of media proposed by Sam Herman, Noam Chomsky in their seminal work on "manufactured consent?" Is it the conflict between public interests and private interests which are driving New Media in India?

The paper looks at various socio-political events of the last decade which were made possible through New Media in India and whether media is removing controls on it by people with money and power. The “2011 anti-corruption crusade†in the capital of the country, New Delhi, under the leadership of Anna Hazare is considered a case study on the impact of new media on decision making of the Government. It wasn't a stand-alone event. By 2017 thousands of largely apolitical crowd followed it up with their heterogenous struggle for cultural rights of conducting Jallikattu, a traditional Tamil bull embracing festival, at the Marina beach, in the capital city of Tamil Nadu, Chennai. During the same period of time, the then Chief Minister of Gujarat and present Prime Minister of India, Narendra Damodardas Modi, was accused of using fake twitter IDs to protect and boost his image. Based on a research done by Internet tool Status People, 46% of his then twitter followers were considered fake. Among the remaining 41% were largely idle. This was by 2012. By 2017 he was supposedly having World's third highest followers in the social media platform Twitter with 34 million followers at that time and growing.

This paper looks at how digital media can be used a tool of public interest, as against a tool for promoting private parties and powerful, as proposed by the political economy model of media functioning. The paper also raises the question whether new media can break away from the shackles of power, money and influence, as described in the Political Economy theory of media, using technology and large participation of public to its advantage.