The Book

Changes in communication technologies are transforming our social environment. In India, ‘media convergence’ has brought together older (mainstream) media and newer (digital) media, making India one of the most mediatised societies in the world.

Media’s Shifting Terrain explores the social and political impacts of this media convergence between 2011 and 2015, through a study of five media-driven mobilisations that transformed India’s public culture.

• In 2011 came the India Against Corruption (IAC) protests, one of the largest civil society mobilisations in post-independence history.
• A year later, in December 2012, there were spontaneous demonstrations of public outrage over the gang rape of a young woman student in a Delhi bus, named ‘Nirbhaya’ by the Indian public.
• In 2013, we saw the unprecedented arrival of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which assumed power in Delhi through a coalition government.
• The General Election of 2014 witnessed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerge victorious with a majority no party has achieved in thirty years.
• Finally, in 2015, AAP swept the Delhi assembly polls against all odds and returned to power.

These mobilisations made effective use of multiple media platforms and, taken together, constitute a turning point in the mediatisation of the country, its society and politics.