CHANDAN KUMAR MANDAL
Once Karl Marx said, "In changing technology world, men change his own nature." Undoubtedly, human society has changed with every advancement in the field of technology. We have become more dependent on technology and media. We, common people, have been consuming media content and participating in virtual conversations and interacting with each other using technology like never before. Our life as a whole has been slightly or in some cases drastically changed due to advancement made in the field of communication technology. As a whole, our life can be summarized into the following statement. “The increasingly common habit of sharing what you’re thinking (Twitter), what you’re reading (StumbleUpon), your finances (Wesabe), your everything (the Web) is becoming a foundation of our culture.” (WIRED, 2009)
Once Karl Marx said, "In changing technology world, men change his own nature." Undoubtedly, human society has changed with every advancement in the field of technology. We have become more dependent on technology and media. We, common people, have been consuming media content and participating in virtual conversations and interacting with each other using technology like never before. Our life as a whole has been slightly or in some cases drastically changed due to advancement made in the field of communication technology. As a whole, our life can be summarized into the following statement. “The increasingly common habit of sharing what you’re thinking (Twitter), what you’re reading (StumbleUpon), your finances (Wesabe), your everything (the Web) is becoming a foundation of our culture.” (WIRED, 2009)
If
you were the typical American media consumer, then you would spend over nine
and quarter hours a day with the media! Multiply that by the number of days in
a year, and you would spend almost five months of each year with media. Since
this is the information age we can break that down into the bits and bytes of
computer data. It adds up to 34 billion bytes a day per person, or about a
third of the capacity of a 100 GB computer hard drive (Bohn & Short, 2009
as cited in Media Now, 2012).
All
this has been possible only because of the arrival of internet in late 1960s,
followed by other major breakthrough happened in the last decade of 20th
century. Internet has engulfed the whole world into one small village and has
been the driving factor behind the concept of 'Globalization'. Not only
countries and citizens around the world, even media sector has largely
benefitted with this phenomenon. Local media have gained even global exposure
once they are connected to internet and decide to post their content on a
website. Internet has also been booming as one of the largest business around
the world.
Shirley
Biagi (2012) notes, "The newest media industry also is growing the
fastest. About 79 percent of all U.S. consumers are online, and the amount of
money spent for Internet advertising increased from $8 billion in the year 2000
to $26 billion in 2010. Internet media have become a new mass medium as well as
an integrated delivery system for traditional print, audio, and video and
interactive media (such as video games). The Internet also offers access to
many other consumer services, such as shopping and social networking, and a
place for businesses to sell their products using advertising and product
promotion."
Despite
the fact internet offers massive source of information and also work as storage
of similar information and variety of data, the popularity of internet and
people's spending too much time online is largely because of the social
networking sites. Social networking site provides people with a way to stay in
touch with their family members, friends, well-wishers, customers, and
suppliers as well. According to Paxson (2010) social networking also helps
users accumulate and maintain social capital. Social capital can mean the
number of friends one has and the degree of respect those friends have for
someone.
There
has been variety of host of social media networking sites like MySpace,
Facebook Twitter, LiveJournal, Hi5, Bebo, Orkut, and LinkedIn, and have helped
significantly in making social networking the most popular activity on the
Internet. MySpace, founded in 2003, was the first big social media site. In
addition to personal profiles, MySpace was also known for its music listings,
with millions of unsigned, independent, and mainstream artists alike setting up
profiles to promote their music, launch new albums, and allow users to buy
songs. Due to its characteristics and popularity among teens had made it a
major site for online advertising.
That
popularity attracted the attention of media conglomerate News Corp., which
bought MySpace in 2005. But with competition from Facebook, by 2009 interest in
MySpace was waning, and the company laid off about 30 percent of its U.S.
staff. Facebook is now the most popular social media site and one of the
fastest-growing sites on the Internet. Started at Harvard in 2004 as an online
substitute to the printed facebooks the school created for incoming freshmen,
Facebook was instantly a hit. The site enables users to construct personal
profiles, upload photos, create lists of favorite things, and post messages to
connect with old friends and to meet new ones. Originally, access was
restricted to college students, but in 2006 the site expanded to include
anyone. Soon after, Facebook grew at a rate of more than two million global
users a month, and by 2010 more than 500 million active users were posting more
than sixty million status updates each day (Campbell et. al., 2012).
Global Leader on Twitter
As
the large population of the world is flowing to join various social networking
sites, global political leaders and celebrities could not refrain from joining
social network sites. Many top leaders of the present world has their account
on Facebook and mostly on Twitter to share their point of view, opinion and
comment on important matter that needs sometimes clarification from the head of
the state.
Global
leaders's presence and activity on twitter has formed a new word –Twiplomacy –
merger of Twitter and Diplomacy. There are two lists on Twitter that has
collection of verified accounts from global leaders. 'World Leaders', a public
list created by Twiplomacy, says, "Heads
of state and government on Twitter" and has 441 members and 275
subscribers. Similar another list – World Leaders - A public list by Verified
Account – has only 66 members and 17,110 subscribers.
 |
| Twiplomacy Study 2015 shows Prime Minister Narendra Modi third among the most followed world leaders on Twitter. (IANS Graphic) |
The
study, which counted data till March 24, is an annual global survey of world
leaders on Twitter. It is aimed at identifying the extent to which world
leaders use the site and how they connect on the social network, reported IANS.
While
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains the third most followed world
leader on the micro-blogging site Twitter while External Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj is the most followed foreign minister, according to the study. Swaraj
is the most followed foreign minister with 2,438,228 followers. She is far
ahead of UAE' Abdullah Bin Zayed (1,608,831) and Turkey's Mevlut Cavusoglu
(376,429).
In the list of top European leaders with more than three million followers, UKPrime Minister David Cameron, @Number10gov, is the most followed European Union leader. However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s official account is not on Twitter and there is just an account with handle @Queen_Europe, a parody account followed by 56,000 users. She is the only G7 leader who is out of Twitter, however, German government spokesman, Steffen Seibert @RegSprecher, is active on the social network.
Nepali Prime Minister Sushil Koirala on Twitter
Prime
Minister of Nepal Sushil Koirala joined the micro-blogging site Twitter through
his official handle – @PM_Nepal – on June 10, 2015. The news came out through his
Chief Press Advisor Prateek Pradhan. He tweeted, "Prime Minister Rt. Hon.
Sushil Koirala is on Twitter. @PM_Nepal".
Soon
after joining his first tweet said, "Prime Minister Office Nepal is on
Twitter's cyber space from Today @KanakManiDixit @brb_laaldhwoj @setopati
@Online_khabar".
Prime Minister Office Nepal is on Twitter's cyber space from Today @KanakManiDixit @brb_laaldhwoj @setopati @Online_khabar
— PM Sushil Koirala (@PM_Nepal) June 10, 2015
News of PM joining Twitter attracted huge media attention. National and international media also covered this news. Anil Giri reporting for Yahoo IndiaNews said, "Known for leading a very simple life, Nepal's Prime Minister Sushil Koirala finally joined microblogging site Twitter on Thursday." Similarly, Karobar Daily reported, "Prime Minister (PM) Sushil Koirala has joined social networking site twitter through the handle @PM_Nepal from Wednesday to interact with the citizens."
In
his first tweet, he had mentioned Kanak Mani Dixit, Former Prime Minister
Baburam Bhattarai and two other online news portals Setopati and OnlineKhabar. His
first tweet was retweeted by 179, while 287 favourited it. Ironically, Dixit,
one of the people mentioned in his tweet, made satiric comment on his arrival
on Twitter.
Dixit
retweeted PM's tweet and said, "Phew! And it took an earthquake and
@prateekpradhan–PMO
Nepal joins Twitter."
The
account had generated almost 6,000 followers in less than 24 hours after the
account was opened. And, it had followed only two accounts on the joining day. As
of Thursday afternoon (June 10th) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
and US President Barack Obama had followed PM Sushil Koirala on Twitter. Sadly
and to utmost surprise, PM Twitter account was hacked on the 13th
day of its beginning.
By
today (August 25, 2015), the PM Twitter account has over 27 thousand followers,
while he has been following 10 accounts – Nepal Embassy India, BaburamBhattarai, Narayan Kaji Shrestha Prakash, K.P. Sharma Oli, Nepal Police,
NepalPMDisasterFund, Ram Sharan Mahat, Minendra Rijal, Barack Obama and PMOIndia – on Twitter.
Altogether,
his account has 70 tweets in 76 days that shows his performance and presence on
Twitter has been poor. On an average, he seems to be writing 0.92 tweet every
day as shown by the figure. His tweet on Nepali Cricket team's victory over USA
in ICC World T-20 Qualifier has highest number of Retweets 323 and 538 Favourites.
Congratulations Team Nepal for winning ICC world T-20 qualifier cricket match against USA by 6 wickets!!
— PM Sushil Koirala (@PM_Nepal) July 10, 2015
His
twitter account have total 33 photos most of them are about formal programs –
several meetings, inauguration and other public appearances while 8 pictures
are infographics on twitter. Even his tweets are mostly related to expressing condolence and congratulations followed by his updates on his participation in different programs and post-earthquake relief fund and only 12 tweets are about government activities and current political scenarios. He has spent several tweets on merely sharing some of his daily involvements, meetings and condolences. Till now, he has only favourited one tweet by PMO India and shared two tweets – one each from Cristiano Ronaldo, Baburam Bhattarai and Minendra Rijal.
Appreciate the great footballer's great gesture. https://t.co/zyH7jqULmN
— PM Sushil Koirala (@PM_Nepal) June 16, 2015
Link to Nepal Earthquake 2015: Post Disaster Needs Assessment paper done by National Planning Commission, Nepal
http://t.co/Cx3W8jCGA4
— Minendra Rijal (@MinisterInfoCom) June 20, 2015
Best wishes to team Nepal in ICC WT20 Qualifiers against USA!
— Baburam Bhattarai (@brb_laaldhwoj) July 10, 2015
To
conclude with an impression of the PM's Twitter handle, the initiation must be
praised wholeheartedly. PM's arrival on Twitter has been applauded and will
give platform for PM himself and also to citizens to discuss on contemporary
issues. But, the present presence of PM on Twitter doesn't look satisfactory
nor it is much interactive. The handle is being managed by a group of people
led by his press advisor Prateek Pradhan has not produced any miracle so far.
His presence on twitter and opinions should be shared frequently. The core team
should advise him to post some more tweets on regular basis. Moreover, PM
should be encouraged to organize a live chat session on Twitter, where he would
be responding to the queries made by common people. References:
Aakarpost. 2015. "Nepal PM Office (@PM_Nepal)
Joins Twitter". Retrieved from http://tech.aakarpost.com/2015/06/nepal-pm-office-sushil-koirala-joins-twitter.html
on August 20, 2015.
Biagi,
S. 2013. Media Impact: An Introduction to
Mass Media, Tenth Edition. Wadsworth: Boston, USA.
Campbell, R., Christopher R. Martin and Bettina
Fabos.
Media and Culture: An
Introduction to Mass Communication, 8th Edition. Bedford/St.
Martin’s: USA.
Doux, Marine. 2015. "World leaders on Twitter:
2015 winners and losers". Politico.
April 28, 2015. Retrieved from http://www.politico.eu/article/world-leaders-on-twitter-2015-winners-and-losers/
on August 20, 2015.
Giri, A. 2015. "Finally, Nepal PM joins
Twitter." Yahoo India News. 11
June, 2015. Retrieved from https://in.news.yahoo.com/finally-nepal-pm-joins-twitter-122210477.html
on August 21, 2015.
Indo-Asian News Service. 2015. "PM Narendra
Modi Third Most Followed World Leader on Twitter." Indo-Asian News Service. April 28, 2015. Retrieved from http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/pm-narendra-modi-third-most-followed-world-leader-on-twitter-758819 on August 20, 2015.
Karobar
Daily. 2015. "PM Koirala on Twitter". Karobaar Daily. June 11, 2015. Retrieved from http://www.karobardaily.com/2015/06/5452/
on August 21, 2015.
Paxson,
P. 2011. Mass communications and media
studies: an introduction. The Continuum International Publishing Group
Inc.: New York.
Twitter. 2015. Twiplomacy:
World Leaders A public list by Twiplomacy. Accessed on August 20, 2015 from
https://twitter.com/twiplomacy/lists/world-leaders.
Straubhaar,
J., Robert LaRose and Lucinda Davenport. 2012. Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology, Seventh
Edition. Wadsworth: Boston, USA.
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