In the aftermath of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, conspiracy theories that he was murdered swamped the internet. Among those behind the amplification of such theories on social media – ensuring that they remained cemented in the news cycle for months – were members of the BJP, a study conducted by University of Michigan has found.
The study, which looked at social media trends, handles, patterns and the tweets of politicians, influencers, journalists and media houses between June 14 and September 12, 2020, has revealed how members of the BJP and pro-BJP handles cranked up the rumour mill, and were behind the troll attacks on Mumbai police and many actors in Bollywood. Tweets by over 2,000 journalists and media houses and 7,818 politicians were studied, as well as the YouTube pages of mainstream television news channels.
The study found that 7,818 BJP and Congress politicians put out 1,03,125 tweets about the case. Whereas the Congress and other parties used the word “suicide” to describe the actor’s death, tweets by BJP leaders used the word “murder” instead.
The study also highlights the role played by TV news channels like Republic TV and Times Now, which cashed in on high TRPs over the months with their sensational coverage of the case. To this end, the tweets of 1,930 journalists and 239 media houses were analysed.
— source thewire.in | 04/Oct/2020