DIGITAL DARBARS: SPECTACLE, STAGECRAFT, AND VIRAL FALSEHOODS IN RAJASTHAN’S ELECTORAL CAMPAIGNS

Abstract [English]

The electronic media has revolutionized electoral campaigning because the campaigning process can propagate the political narratives at the same speed by using highly interactive and visual communication methods. Modern-day campaigns are utilizing more and more of digital stagecraft, multimedia narratives, and algorithm facilitated amplification to influence voter perception and mobilize political action. An electoral campaign in the state of Rajasthan serves as a good example of this change study since the traditional forms of political performances are being dragged round in the virtual world. In this paper, the Digital Darbars framework is a model that explains how a political spectacle, the production of the media and amplification of social media inter-relate to create viral political narratives in modern political campaigns. The analysis that examined the content of the campaign pages of the social media on the most popular platforms like Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube. The trends of digital political communication were analyzed in the measures of quantitative engagement, content classification and sentiment analysis. Results also indicate that content associated with spectacle (rally videos and symbolic imagery and meme-centric narratives) will have a far more significant engagement than policy-focused messages do. The interaction dynamic with a growing importance of multimedia narrative is observed in visual medium to date in the political campaign. The misinformation is also demonstrated in the analysis to contribute to digital campaign ecosystems. It is easier to convert the media information and viral political memes and reach more people as opposed to the verified campaign messages, which will create more polarization of the audience. As the campaign events go through the Digital Darbar Ecosystem Model suggested, they are converted into viral narratives as they go through the media capture, platform amplification and audience interpretation stages. These findings imply that effective mitigation techniques of misinformation, effective platform regulation, and effective digital literacy ought to be adopted to secure democratic communication.