A search on the web for top social media influencers in Kerala throws up an entire list from technology and automobile to travel, fashion, lifestyle and even cooking. But for a highly political society, politics remains a glaring miss from that list.
As such, the absence of a voice, a la Dhruv Rathee with millions of followers, that influences political choice is apparent especially during this election season. Neither is the practice of wooing voters by using popular social media influencers from other sectors as election campaigners, which is an accepted practice elsewhere, prevalent here.
Sebastian Paul, a social critic, feels it is unsurprising as an average Malayali, irrespective of social strata, thinks he knows it all when it comes to politics and considers being influenced by someone else infra dig. That is also why an actor like Prem Nazir despite his unparalleled popularity bit the dust at the hustings.
“Aristotle’s statement that man is a political animal could have been about Kerala. When in need of political guidance, people here had looked up to political stalwarts like AKG and EMS who in a way were their influencers,” Mr. Paul said.
Advocate A. Jayasankar attributed the absence of political social media influencers to the highly partisan Kerala society. He, however, feels social media is being efficiently utilised by the CPI(M) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) while the Congress lags behind.
‘Not easily influenced’
“Because everyone is politically partisan, credibility becomes dubious. The audience is equally partisan with clear political affiliations and is not easy to be influenced,” said Mr. Jayasankar, who, incidentally, is one of the rare voices who regularly airs political opinions through YouTube.
Sarin P., convener, State Digital Media Cell, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, dubbed influencing the electorate through social media influencers in some way an ethical practice. He, however, said that the party coordinates social media voices, which express pro-Congress democratic values on their own.
“There may not be a social influencer like Dhruv Rathee who backs up his opinions with data. But there are others who may not be political social influencers by definition but nevertheless do political messaging. Only, their social media posts are either emotionally loaded or driven by misinformation,” Mr. Sarin said.
Memes to analysis
Santhosh George Kulangara, a popular travel vlogger and founder of Safari TV, felt that there is no space for social media influencers when it comes to politics in Kerala. That space, he said, is occupied by the social media divisions of television channels and media.
“Political content by political parties on social media nowadays is marked with a certain degree of aggression and is mostly in the form of memes. The analytical content is mostly left to the media and when they do that, there is a lot more credibility,” Mr. Kulangara said.
