The Oxford Internet Institute and Blavatnik School of Government are hosting a talk from Joyojeet Pal from the University of Michigan School of Information, to discuss 'Booths, brickbats, brands and Bollywood: social media in the 2019 Indian general elections'. The talk will be moderated by Anandi Mani, Professor of Behavioural Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School. Please note that, due to unforeseen circumstances, Joyojeet Pal will now be delivering the talk via remote connection.

In this presentation, we consider the role of social media in the Indian 2019 general elections. Using a mix of collected data on social media use by politicians and open discussion on peoples' experience with social media in the election cycle, we examine celebrity engagement, online attacks, booth agent interactions, and brand management by politicians. We consider the impacts of these on democratic discourse in India as well as other parts of the global south where politicians increasingly use social media as an alternative to direct engagement with the professional mainstream media.

Please register your attendance via Eventbrite.

About the author

Joyojeet Pal is a senior researcher at Microsoft Research India and an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information. His recent work focuses on the use of social media by politicians.