Blitzkrieg Marketing: The Social Media Way

The role of political communication, broadly-understanding the origin, transmission, and influence of information-is increasingly relevant in today's society. As information technology evolves the field must take into account rapid changes in the socio-technological environment, while also considering new ways of thinking about political communication. The present research paper studies the importance of use and rise of social media in the arena of Indian politics especially in general elections of 2014. It studies the impact of social media on voters in the age group of 18–40 years as they constitute the majority of the voting population. It tries to comprehend the factors that influence internet users to vote for political leaders. It also explores the sources considered trustworthy by respondents to learn about politics in general elections in India. The study was conducted soon after the general elections of 2014 took place. Primary data was collected during the months of June and July 2014 from different areas of Visakhapatnam City. A purposive sample of 225 respondents was selected for the study. Standard deviation and scaling techniques, etc. were used for the analysis.