Research and Teaching in Political Communication: Ideological Asymmetries Determining Media Discourse in India

Abstract

The paper intends to demonstrate how teaching and research of political communication have some inherent flaws in India. There is a huge amount of research literature available in the field of political communication in relation to communication campaigns, alternative strategies, populism, public relations, etc. But on the other hand, there is also a research gap in this literature cornering the ideological asymmetries, which makes media debates in India very complex and contradictory at the same time. Within the broad discussion about media debates and political communication, this paper confines its scope to the inquiry of political debates in print, visual and social media. Inconsistencies and irregularities in the comparison of political behavior in India, in relation to the general description of political communication are explicit in the existing research. This gives space to the formulation of research problem in teaching/research of political communication in the Indian context. The paper will investigate the questions that emerge out of the formulated research problem.