Call it the Tower of Babel, outrage factory or symbol of the zeitgeist but social media did become the dominant voice of so-called ‘public opinion’ in 2015. From Indo-Pak cricket to the juvenile justice bill, and from PM Modi’s foreign tours to the viral #whereisRahul hashtag, social media conducted the national debate this year and dictated news priorities for mainstream media. The top trend became the headline, a hashtag a developing story. So enslaved are mainstream media outlets to Twitter trends that because high food prices or agrarian distress rarely feature on the ‘trends’ list, these issues hardly make it to prime-time bulletins or front pages either.
Social media has tamed mainstream politicians too. When BJP MP Chandan Mitra recently made Read More
