SSR Case: Michigan University Professor’s Study Exposes How BJP Used Social Media To Malign Maha Govt

A study conducted by the Michigan University has indicated that several parties including certain media channels and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politicians were responsible for spreading conspiracy theories that suggested that Sushant Singh Rajput was murdered. In news, Rajdeep Sardesai speaks to Joyojeet Pal, Associate Professor at the University of Michigan who conducted this study. The study was conducted on posts from June 14, the day of his death, to September 12, 2020. Tweets by over 2,000 journalists and media houses and 7,818 politicians were studied and 7,171 Youtube videos were analysed.

The study published by social media researchers have found that the discussion around the death of late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput changed from suicide to “murder and conspiracy” after the first month. The paper, authored by researchers Joyojeet Pal, Syeda Zainab Akbar, Ankur Sharma, Himani Negi and Anmol Panda, has tracked Youtube pages of news channels, hashtags and tweets from politicians, influencers, journalists and media houses, and shows that BJP affiliated members in their tweets used words like ‘murder’ over suicide more than other parties.

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