The Impact of Social Media Platforms on Civic Discourse in India: A Case Study of YouTube

The country’s socioeconomic progress and livelihood are dependent on the type of young it has. Youth participation in the development process is critical for bringing about change in socioeconomic structures and increasing individuals’ quality of life. Social media can help young people reach a larger number of individuals by enhancing the flow of information within the youth group. This has also resulted in significant cost savings, as well as improved opportunities for them to network with their partners, listen to audience expectations, and answer to inquiries. Youth civic involvement is critical to young people’s overall empowerment and development.The ideas suggest a link between young social media use, civic engagement, socioeconomic position, and political and non-political participation in development. Social media encourages meaningful participation of young men and women while also providing young people with skills that will improve their participation and community engagement. It also raises their knowledge and awareness, as well as provides opportunity for them to actively participate in a variety of topics affecting the growth process. Various activities and events are taking place to unify and engage all youth in social transformation for growth, with the help of WhatsApp, histogram, talking texting, and emails, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. So the goal of this research is to better understand the relationship between social media adoption and the influence it has on young engagement and participation. This study produced mixed results using a qualitative technique and a focus group discussion (FGD). For this study, the researchers chose YouTube since it has over a billion subscribers globally and is used by people of diverse backgrounds and professions. The goal was to determine the impact of YouTube on civic discourse in India. The data was acquired via a structured questionnaire distributed online via Google Forms. Nonprobability sampling was utilized to acquire data from 20 YouTube users who watched videos on a regular basis. The analysis indicated that most of the users regularly watched advertisements on YouTube. They found ads with memorable music and popular actors to be more desirable, also how political views impacting the user’s point of View, Mass of people in India used YouTube in Educational Purpose. Furthermore, regression analysis demonstrated that users’ perceptions of the commercials influenced their purchasing behaviour for the relevant goods. Finally, the study presented some consequences and ideas for advertisers, marketers, Indian youth, and politicians.