New communication technologies and the rise of the Indian citizen-publics: A critical enquiry

In current times, new communication technologies have permeated the lives of people in multifarious ways and like never before. Foremost in this path now, are social media websites and online blogs. It is such times that have inspired research on the nature of technocratic citizens, technocratic state, and a public sphere mediated by new communication technologies. In this context, understanding the case of India wherein being digital has occupied much significance could provide interesting ways of seeing the nature of Indian citizens now. Even though the medium of virtual spaces increasingly tend to be universal in its nature, the way it weaves with socio-political lifeworlds of the local needs deeper engagement. In this endeavour, this paper seeks to explore how one might develop an epistemology that could enable an alternative understanding to the nature of citizenship that has come to mean greater visibility and audibility, in the face of new media spaces that promise a borderless universal world. By adopting a qualitative methodology with theoretical engagement of literature, this paper constitutes an exercise in mapping the idea of being citizens in terms of its digital cultures at this juncture.