Introduction: Communication on political issues is the cornerstone of democracy. Social media empowers individuals to share political information. A virtual platform like ‘X’ (formally Twitter) has protected and integrated its online communication channels to establish a virtual social network. Political elites, media professionals, and the public utilize ‘X’ to provide their opinions and thoughts on a particular issue. The increased accessibility provided by micro-blogging platforms significantly promotes the freedom of expression and strengthens the democratic nation.
Methodology: The present study is quantitative, and a cross-sectional research design with priory coding is used to collect data from the official ‘X’ handle of four major Indian national political parties. 601 socio-political posts (formally tweets) are analyzed with the content analysis method.
Results: Outgrowth indicates that two-thirds of posts from the authorized ‘X’ accounts of Indian national political parties of local and almost half of posts of national importance are bias-free. Two-thirds of posts from the authorized ‘X’ accounts of Indian national political parties of local importance contain a positive agenda, and less than one-fourth of posts have negative agenda. Two-thirds of posts from the authorized ‘X’ account of Indian national political parties of local importance are propaganda free, and less than one-fourth of posts contain white propaganda.
Findings: The outcome shows that Indian national political parties are sending a positive message through posts of local importance from their official handles. In most posts of local importance, the truth has been presented exaggeratedly.
Keywords: Twitter, political communication, agenda, political bias, and propaganda.
Manoj Kumar, Research Scholar, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, India.
Dr Amit Sharma, Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, India.
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