Social media may impact 160 Lok Sabha constituencies: Report

Social media such as Facebook and Twitter are likely to impact around 160 out of 543 Lok Sabha constituencies during the next general elections, a study conducted by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IRIS Knowledge Foundation said.

The study identified 67 constituencies as  having a "medium impact", while the rest had been identified as being "low impact" or "no impact" constituencies, with  Maharashtra having the most high-impact constituencies (21), followed by Gujarat (17).

"High Impact Constituencies are those where the number of Facebook users are more than the margin of victory of the winner in the last Lok Sabha election, or where Facebook users account for over 10 per cent of the voting population," the report said.

In the low-impact category the numbers are 60 out of 543 and the remaining 256 out of 543 in the no-impact category. The report said the medium-impact constituencies were those where it had been assumed that a Facebook user could influence one other voter, who might not be on Facebook.

Medium-impact constituencies had the total number of Facebook users at over 5 per cent of the voting population.

According to DNA columnist Harini Calamur " he 2008 American elections - also called the Facebook elections - were different from any other that was held before it. It was the first time that candidates across the board attempted to connect directly with the voter-using technology.

Among the candidates Barack Obama used the technology with telling effect to connect with the young, technology-savvy voters. She writes that Obama, then an largely an unknown representative from Chicago, ''used the power and ubiquitous nature of social media to interact, to put out messages, to raise funds, to organise and to campaign to an audience that did not watch television, and was not interested in the discourse of the older generation.''

However, she points out thgat in the 2009 Indian general elections, BJP leader LK Advani's attempt to leverage the social media had come a cropper.

However, Calamur differs from the findings of the report. "The report is excessively optimistic about the role of social media transforming electoral apathy into involvement. There are two major issues. The first is that not everyone who has a Facebook account and is eligible to vote is registered as a voter. The second is that not everyone who is registered to vote exercises their franchise.

"What is not evident in the study is whether there is a correlation between Facebook users in a given ''High Impact'' constituency, and whether they are even registered voters in that constituency, or even interested in voting and politics."

She also points out that the study is not clear whether a large proportion of these Facebook users live outside the constituency in which they may be registered.