Chief minister C Joseph Vijay during his speech on Monday in the Tamil Nadu assembly
1.3 lakh. That was the number of views Tamil Nadu govt’s YouTube channel got on Sept 7, its highest ever. It was the day chief minister C Joseph Vijay delivered his speech lambasting the legacy of DMK .
It was the first time in 59 years that a party outside the Dravidian duopoly — TVK — was at the helm. The recently concluded budget session assembly was a first in many ways. But more importantly, it was the first time in history that the assembly session was broadcast live in its entirety, which meant that for the first time, people of the state could tune into proceedings on their televisions, computers and phones.
“It’s almost as if MLAs were keen to shine on reels,” says U Thilagavathi, social activist, advocate at Madras high court. But this time, we got to see it all,” she says. On the final day of the budget session, it was said that a woman and a member from a minority community were appointed pro tem speakers for the first time in TN history. Even after fact-checking and clarifying, the narrative came again from the speaker,” says Iyan Karthikeyan, former head of TN Fact Check Unit, constituted by the previous DMK govt, to identify and counter misinformation.
We would only get to see clips of the leaders’ speeches on TV or read about them in the newspaper the next day. We always heard only the bottomline, which issues were discussed or which bill was passed. TV and YouTube channels also livestreamed the sessions, garnering tens of thousands of views. The most content-worthy moments were instantly turned into Instagram reels and YouTube shorts by IT wings of political parties as well as individual content creators. Reels of newbie MLAs blundering through speeches were circulated by the IT wings of opposition parties, while those of the ruling party mocked walkouts by the opposition. Key moments from the session became tools for parties to further their narrative and appease supporters. Charges of spreading fake news through social media have been dogging the TVK govt. “It is not true. “Manipulated narratives and disinformation are reaching the masses on a worrying scale. Efforts to take correct information to the masses must be made in parallel to the reels.”
“Earlier, only accredited mediapersons were privy to the goings-on in assembly.