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The pilot study ‘Rise of Influencers: Digital media in the regional economy’ is part of the News Initiative at IIIT-Delhi, which is a research group convened by Dr Aasim Khan, Department of Social Sciences and Humanities.
It aims to understand the role of digital media in shaping ‘influence’ in the regional discourse. In the past the Initiative has conducted survey-based fieldwork to understand the impact of technology on public and media institutions. In the new study it seeks to identify the rise of ‘influencers’, with the aim to expand on the previous study from 2019 which focussed on Delhi and Bangalore. The new study aims update the key findings about the changing norms of public engagement and self-definition,[i] and map this change in relation to the transformations in the regional economy. In particular, it aims to understand how ‘influencers’ become visible in every domain of public life and the way this relates to the existing hierarchies in the regional media economy. The study is particularly focused on regional capitals of Lucknow and Hyderabad, and the way digital platforms-based influence relates to other key institutions during a major political cycle.
Previous study: [i] https://www.epw.in/engage/article/objectivity-openness-study-digital-journalism-2019