The advancement in technology has mandated many elected representatives to use social media for participatory development. However, there is a paucity of evidence-base on the usage of social media by the Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in India. In this context, the present study aimed to explore the perspectives and experiences of EWRs in Panchayati Raj Institutions on utilizing social media for participatory development activities. The proposed thesis attempts to study factors related to the acceptance
and usage of social media by the EWRs leading to usage behaviour and public value accrued from it for participatory communication and engagement with their community. The research aims to find if EWRs of Gram Panchayats social media enabled networked connections are playing a significant and important role in their rural development through enhancing involvement and representation via social media in the state of Karnataka in India. Given that this study maps with SDG5 (Gender Equality) and SDG10 (Reducing Inequalities), the findings will provide multiple intersecting evidences of EWRs barriers and challenges for creating public value of social media use for community engagement.
Department of Mass Communication, School of Arts, Humanities & Commerce, Coimbatore
Strong foundation in research, academic writing skills
Vice Chairperson | Associate Professor
School of Communication, Coimbatore