National Institute of Mass Communication & Journalism, Ahmedabad

 

The simplest definition of mass communication means communicating with the masses. Technologies are changing rapidly and these changes in technologies affect everyone. In earlier days, to send a message to mass audiences, the only options available to people were print media such as newspapers, magazines, etc. and rich media such as television ads, radio ads, etc. This had made mass communication more of luxury available to only rich or elite people and the employees of print media, television and radio. However, this roadblock is removed by technology. These days, blogging is proving itself as an emerging medium of mass communication. It made it possible for a layman to reach mass audiences with minimum to no cost.

What is a Blog?

Even if this is the world of digitization, there are many people that are not really aware of the real concept of Blog and Blogging. Let me share it in brief.

A Blog is a website that gets updated regularly. Some people also consider it a journal or diary. The blog post is an article published on the Blog. In a blog, there can be more than one writer that writes on the same or different niches. The blog can have text, video, images, GIFs and other types of content as well. The blog can be public or private.

This brief information must have answered your question about what a blog is. Now, let’s delve deeper to understand its role as a medium of mass communication.

A blog can be built easily with a minimum investment. Thus, anyone can afford to have the same. As it gets hosted on the internet, it can reach the masses. In fact, it can surpass the reach of television, radio, newspaper and magazines because all these mediums only provide local reach. On the other hand, the blog can be used to reach mass audiences across the globe.

This medium of the blog provides freedom of speech. Thus, people can write on any topic. For example, they can write to generate awareness about any cause to get more followers or they can write to showcase their own expertise to gain more customers. In any case, the blog is an effective medium of mass communication.

These powerful characteristics of Blog have attracted almost everyone. All media houses, corporate houses, companies, socialists, activists, etc. have their own blogs that get updated on a regular basis. According to the statistics, there are 152 million blogs on the internet.

The mass communication institutes have recognized the power of blogging and that is why many institutes have started encouraging students of mass communication to take benefit of Blogging. If you are thinking of doing a course in mass communication, you must know what a blog is and how to use it in your favour. Start exploring this powerful medium of mass communication.

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