Framing Politics: Dissecting Bias and Agenda-Setting in Indian National Parties' posts on ‘X’
Published 8 January 2026
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Abstract
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