TWITTER POLITICS: HOW SOUTH ASIAN POLITICIANS USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO SHAPE PUBLIC DISCOURSE

Abstract

The impact of digital technology has changed the South Asian political landscape, with Twitter emerging as the center for public debate. This research looks at how Twitter is used by the political elite in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh to narratively build, mobilize, and shape social and political perceptions. It uses a comparative case study of Imran Khan, Narendra Modi, and Sheikh Hasina to analyze their rhetorical and ideological interventions through critical discourse analysis (CDA) during significant political milestones, elections, and during national emergencies from 2018 to 2024. The research focuses on analyzing over 3000 tweets from verified political accounts. It observes the use of language, framing, hashtags, tone, and levels of interaction. It is found that, Twitter serves as the battleground for political conflict and as a megaphone for self glorification. The use of advertisement for political discourse is widespread featuring, populism, cultural or religious symbols, the politicization of ‘us’ and ‘them’, and chronic nationalism. As much as these strategies promote, or reinforce a politically defined public persona, and increase the perception of an emerging digital India, they get used to instigate social and political division, misinformation, and targeted hate campaigns, especially against politically divergent and minority views. The paper displays findings in which users of the social media platform, Twitter, are able to access political discussions as well as engage in them. Additionally, it amplifies the risks involved in users getting divided into groups or communities where they exclusively communicate among themselves. As the algorithms of the application intensify harshly conflicting content. This research focuses mostly on the politics of the Global South by analyzing the role of media in politics, the media of the Global South, and raising issues of the ethics of the media by politics to put on the media self-regulations. The paper highlights the need for more consideration of the role of the media and politics in the Global South, and the need for media self-regulation.