Impact of New Media on Dynamics of Pakistan Politics

Abstract

Information technology has tremendously facilitated the communication phenomenon and mass media have emerged as pervasive and encompassing tools of politics. New media has initiated the process of democratization of information and has empowered the audience to be producers and consumers of information at the same time. Peters (2009, p.18) describes new media ‘as emerging communication and information technologies undergoing a historical process of contestation, negotiation and institutionalization.’ The Arab spring uprising initiated by the new media has grabbed the attention of scholars and researchers worldwide. Literature review suggests a positive relationship between usage of new media and political mobilization in the developed world. However, there is a need to conduct studies about the diffusion patterns, usage and impact of new media in the developing countries. This study aims to explore the usage patterns of new media by political parties of Pakistan and its impact on the dynamics of Pakistan politics. The study partially focuses to explain the political content usage patterns of the University students on the basis of rural and urban population by selecting equal students from hostels and day scholars. The study suggests a quick adoption of facebook by rural respondents residing in hostels. The data indicates that facebook is the most popular social networking site among youth for the dispersion of political information as compared to other tools of new media including twitter, my space, blogs, and email etc. The respondents indicate the use of cell phones for political mobilization by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The study establishes a positive correlation between political mobilization and new media usage among educated youth. Keeping in view the overall literacy rate, internet penetration, recurrent load-shedding, and other peculiar socio-economic factors, the study suggests that the impact of new media in the political domain is limited as compared to the general perceptions.