Abdullah Ahmed Sheikh_____ The writer is a blogger

Suddenly, PML N’s social media has started responding to PTI leadership. Even the Twitter accounts of top PML N politicians are throwing harsh responses towards PTI’s top leadership. Recently, the PTI social media army has been outwitting all its political and media opponents. The power of PTI’s social media team is its organic response to political opponents. According to PTI social media teams, they claim that they are a volunteer team and only graphic designers are paid. Then, their social media volunteers are within and outside Pakistan. If PTI local supporters remain silent owing to pressures, the overseas PTI social media volunteers raise the bar and are always present on multiple social media applications. The social media response was a missing link in the PML N team. It is believed that they began social media dissemination under the guidance of Maryam Nawaz Sharif when Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was the country’s prime minister.

The primary question for the PML N social media team is to generate an organic response from the public. The popularity of a political party is directly proportional to the performance of a social media team of a political party. The social media response of PML N is appreciative as it is a political right of every political party to disseminate its propaganda by involving the most effective and modern technological tools. However, PML N social media team faces the fundamental challenges. Earlier, PML N has been dependent upon bureaucracy for their execution plans. Then, the social media organization is a different game altogether. The traditional bureaucracy and political administrators need to raise the bar to cope with the challenges of social media dissemination. It is believed that the leadership of PML N, especially Mariam Nawaz Sharif understands the competence of social media dissemination.

Then, like PTI social media team, PML N has to generate organic responses from its core support base. A few paid workers can not compete with the organic response of the hundreds and thousands of PTI supporters. The supporters of PTI are young and related to social media applications. Therefore, it is easier for PTI to generate an organic response from their supporters. However, it is a different task for PML N altogether, which has a traditional political constituency. Most PML N supporters are comparatively old and do not relate to social media applications. Therefore, it shall be a daunting task for PML N to engage more extensive support at various social media applications. Nevertheless, the new life in PML N’s social media team shall advance the political dissemination of PML N.

Then it is also significant to counter the propaganda with qualitative political content. Hence, content and graphic designers should be innovative and skillful to counter the political images of opposing political leaders. Presently, the performance of PML N is so disappointing in the public eye that it shall be arduous task to build a better impression of PML N. Then, the might of the PTI social media team and volunteers is also a big challenge. Therefore, it shall be a big challenge for Mariam Nawaz Sharif’s leadership to cope with the PTI social media army and build a positive impression of PML N.

Lastly, political narratives are significant, and it is a democratic privilege of a political party to construct, disseminate and execute political narratives. Then it is also equally important to counter propaganda with logic, content and democratic values. Mere political rants and diatribes shall not work to dislodge the political narratives of the opposing political parties. PML N’s social media team and leadership have started targeting former prime minister Imran Khan with political vengeance and retribution. These personal attacks may not deter the PTI social media team or Imran Khan. However, it will create a bad taste for PML N in the longer run as PTI social media team and volunteers are far too strong than the social media team and volunteers of PML N. What does PML N’s social media team do? They should focus more on the political performance of the Imran Khan and PTI governments. The personal attacks on Imran Khan and accusing him in the cases like those of Tosha Khana shall fire back. Nevertheless, it is a welcome political response from PML N’s social media team to take on the political opponents.https://republicpolicy.com/new-political-power-the-social-media-army-of-pti/