RESEARCH PROBLEM

Indian newspapers often carry advertisements by governments, ministries and public agencies. This
is an aggrandisement that blurs the distinction between public service messaging and political
advertising. Unlike purely political advertising where a party and its benefactors pay for ads,
government advertising uses public funds to extol the virtues of those in power. Many billboards in
Delhi, for example, are advertisements by the local government.

This has an insidious political objective. Pure public interest messaging doesn’t need to involve glitzy
media campaigns with mugshots of political leaders. Even state governments book center spreads in
dailies circulated in Delhi, raising questions over who their target audience really is. Central
government advertisements are released through the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity.
According to DAVP reports, the central government spent nearly four billion rupees ($62 million) on
advertising in newspapers last financial year. That figure doesn’t include money spent in magazines
and non-print advertising on television, radio and the Internet, or outdoor publicity.

Hence the question comes about the whether political parties can be allowed to make such
advertisements and spend so much on political ads. There is no prescribed limit as such for spending
on political ads which have a direct influence on the voter base which was clearly witnessed through
the 2014 election, where a collective effort of TV ads and Social Media apps which supported the
current ruling party as a result of which there was also a high turn up of various voters than never
before. there was clearly a big influence of media. Although one today hires various organisations to
keep a good reputation of himself or herself in the media but whether such a freedom must also be
given to political parties who may take responsibility of the state or for that matter the country. A
party or candidate must be judged by its actions and not based on false promised or social image.
Hence the author would conduct a critical analysis of the same election laws on advertising and
suggest.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH

There is clearly no doubt necessity in todays time to get a message or product or idea out in the world
through means of advertising. But even any form of advertising when gets very much political, there
must be some regulations as to the extent to which and the means to which a person could advertise
in the public domain. Hence though the following research the author would like to suggest means
through which fair and unbiased political campaigns can take place without a bad turmoil or unfair
means in age of social media.
Social media is the best means of communication and spread of information. But with the wide spread
of informations, there is also been a widespread of fake or wrong or untrue facts or information, which
makes it necessary during the election season to conduct an in-depth study and gain knowledge on
advertisement in case of political ads. Through this dissertation the author through the experience of
2014 Lok Sabha elections, or 2016 US Presidential elections where the media and dissemination of
information, many times fake had created a major role in the victory of candidates.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

1. Social Media and Election Campaigns: Key Tendencies and Ways Forward1

This book aims to further the research in the fields of social media and political communication by
moving beyond the hype and avoiding the most eye-catching and spectacular cases. It looks at stable
democracies without current political turmoil, small countries as well as large continents, and minor
political parties as well as major ones. Investigating emerging practices in the United States, Europe,
and Australia, both on national and local levels, enables us to grasp contemporary tendencies across
different regions and countries. The book provides empirical insights into the diverse uses of different
social media for political communication in different societies. Contributors look at the ways in which
novel arenas connect with other channels for political communication, and how politicians as well as
citizens in general use social media services.

2. The Presidency and Social Media: Discourse, Disruption, and Digital Democracy in the 2016
Presidential Election2

The media have long played an important role in the modern political process and the 2016
presidential campaign was no different. From Trump’s tweets and cable-show-call-ins to Sander’s
social media machine to Clinton’s "Trump Yourself" app and podcast, journalism, social and digital
media, and entertainment media were front-and-center in 2016. Clearly, political media played a
dominant and disruptive role in our democratic process. This book helps to explain the role of these
media and communication outlets in the 2016 presidential election. This thorough study of how
political communication evolved in 2016 examines the disruptive role communication technology
played in the 2016 presidential primary campaign and general election and how voters sought and
received political information. The Presidency and Social Media includes top scholars from leading

1
Gunn Sara Enli, Hallvard Moe, Routledge, 02-Oct-2017
2
Dan Schill, John Allen Hendricks, Routledge, 22-Dec-2017
research institutions using various research methodologies to generate new understandings—both
theoretical and practical—for students, researchers, journalists, and practitioners.

3. Social Media in Politics: Case Studies on the Political Power of Social Media3

This volume sets out to analyse the relation between social media and politics by investigating the
power of the internet and more specifically social media, in the political and social discourse. The
volume collects original research on the use of social media in political campaigns, electoral
marketing, riots and social revolutions, presenting a range of case studies from across the world as
well as theoretical and methodological contributions. Examples that explore the use of social media
in electoral campaigns include, for instance, studies on the use of Face book in the 2012 US
presidential campaign and in the 2011 Turkish general elections. The final section of the book debates
the usage of Twitter and other Web 2.0 tools in mobilizing people for riots and revolutions, presenting
and analysing recent events in Istanbul and Egypt, among others.

4. The Role of Twitter in the 2016 US Election4

While much attention has already been paid to Trump's use of Twitter as a phenomenon—how it
helps drive news cycles, distracts attention from other matters, or levies attacks against rivals, the
news media, and other critics—there has been little scholarly analysis of the impact Twitter played
in the actual election. These chapters apply an impressive diversity of theoretical explanations and
methodological approaches to explore how this new technology shaped an American election, and
what impact it could have in the future.

5. The Big Connect: Politics in the Age of Social Media5

Are digital means of communication better than traditional bhaashans and processions? Will a social
media revolution coerce armchair opinion makers to head to poll booths? Twitter, Facebook, and
LinkedIn are changing the way the denizens of the world, and more specifically youth of this country,
communicate and connect. In The Big Connect, Shaili Chopra traces the advent of social media in
India and how politics and lobbying has now shifted to the virtual floor. She argues that though a
post, a pin, or a tweet may not translate into a vote, it can definitely influence it. With comparisons
to the Obama campaign of 2008 and 2012 and analysis of the social media campaigns of political

3
Bogdan Pătruţ, Monica Pătruţ, Springer, 05-May-2014
4
Christopher J. Galdieri, Jennifer C. Lucas, Tauna S. Sisco, Springer, 06-Nov-2017
5
Shaili Chopra, Random House India, 02-Apr-2014,
bigwigs like Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi, and Arvind Kejriwal—the book discusses the role of a
digital community in Indian politics.

6. Campaigns and Elections American Style: The Changing Landscape of Political Campaigns6
It provides a real education in contemporary campaign politics. In the fifth edition, academics and
campaign professionals explain how Trump won the presidency, comparing his sometimes novel
tactics with tried and true strategies including how campaign themes and strategies are developed and
communicated, the changes in campaign tactics as a result of changing technology, new techniques
to target and mobilize voters, the evolving landscape of campaign finance and election laws, and the
increasing diversity of the role of media in elections.

7. Dollarocracy: How the Money and Media Election Complex is Destroying America7
Blending vivid reporting from the 2012 campaign trail and deep perspective from decades covering
American and international media and politics, political journalist John Nichols and media critic
Robert W. McChesney explain how US elections are becoming controlled, predictable enterprises
that are managed by a new class of consultants who wield millions of dollars and define our politics
as never before. As the money gets bigger—especially after the Citizens United ruling—and
journalism, a core check and balance on the government, declines, American citizens are in danger
of becoming less informed and more open to manipulation.

8. Politics and Big Data: Nowcasting and Forecasting Elections with Social Media8
Day-by-day, hour-by-hour evaluation of the evolution of online ideas and opinion allows observers
and scholars to monitor trends and momentum in public opinion well before traditional polls.
However, there are difficulties in recording and analysing often brief, unverified comments while the
unequal age, gender, social and racial representation among social media users can produce inaccurate
forecasts of final polls. Reviewing the different techniques employed using social media to nowcast
and forecast elections, this book assesses its achievements and limitations while presenting a new
technique of "sentiment analysis" to improve upon them. The authors carry out a meta-analysis of the
existing literature to show the conditions under which social media-based electoral forecasts prove
most accurate while new case studies from France, the United States and Italy demonstrate how much
more accurate "sentiment analysis" can prove.

6
Candice J. Nelson, James A. Thurber, Routledge, 22-Aug-2018
7
John Nichols, Robert W McChesney, PublicAffairs, 11-Jun-2013
8
Andrea Ceron, Luigi Curini, Stefano Maria Iacus, Taylor & Francis, 19-Dec-2016
9. Internet Election Campaigns in the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan9
This book investigates how institutional differences, such as the roles of political parties and the
regulation of electoral systems, affect the development of Internet election campaigns in the U.S.,
Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. It examines whether or not the “Americanization of elections” is evident
in East Asian democracies. While Japan is a parliamentary system, the U.S. and Korea are presidential
systems and Taiwan is a semi-presidential system that has a president along with a parliamentary
system. Furthermore, the role of the presidency in the U.S., Korea, and Taiwan is quite different.
Taking these variations in political systems into consideration, the authors discuss how the electoral
systems are regulated in relation to issues such as paid advertisements and campaign periods. They
argue that stronger regulation of election systems and shorter election periods in Japan characterize
Japanese uniqueness compared with the U.S., Korea, and Taiwan in terms of Internet election
campaigns.

9
Shoko Kiyohara, Kazuhiro Maeshima, Diana Owen, Springer, 17-Oct-2017