Digital Media in Electoral Participation: A Study of Bangladesh Election 2018

Abstract

In modern representative democracy, election is considered as the most significant way of producing and promoting democracy. To successfully accomplish the electoral process, manifold groups, such as political parties, and citizens participate in political activities. However, this practice is evolving over times, and in modern world, digital media has emerged as a game changer in electoral participation. Bangladesh with a skyrocketing number of cyber-dwellers is not lagging in this race. In the last decade, an apparent paradigm shift has taken place, and prior public sphere has become digitalized. A huge portion of people are no longer interested to interact in physical context before online. Since the invading digital cyberspace overshadowed the existing political platforms, participants along with traditional media are also following the tide. In such circumstances, this research investigates and analyses how various political actors participated in the 11 th Jatiya Sangsad Election of Bangladesh through digital media; and explores the dynamics of this communicative environment extrapolating a few unique propositions.