Govt employing influencers: Death knell for professional news media?

The development will likely hasten the decline of the legacy media while providing a viable revenue model to hitherto economically unstable social media news and entertainment purveyors

With an eye on the general elections, the government's communication policy has diversified from TV and print media to include social media influencers. Individuals with large followings on social media will get government funding to promote the government's leadership and programmes either directly or through advertisements.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued an open tender on March 3 for empanelling social media marketing agencies under its project MyGov. The agencies selected are expected to provide a detailed plan of campaigns to promote the government's programmes and policies by finding the "right mix of influencers". They will be