blogs communication

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Dissertation paper

Blogs: Two way communication or not

Shikha Pathak

Roll No: 90

Post Graduate Diploma in Mass Communication

(2012-2013)

Jadavpur University

Kolkata

Introduction


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Blogs are collections of articles, ideas, news, facts, opinions or inspirations that

are posted on the internet. They are usually structured, organized by category

and are updated often, if not daily. The owner of the blog is able to control the

content. The term, which stands for "Web log," was coined in 1999 and has

caught on like wildfire. There are now about 4 million blogs on the Internet and

the number is growing every day. An important aspect related to blogs is that

they explicitly express the opinion of people and the bloggers and avidly

communicate with the readers. They provide great supplemental content and

direct attention to areas that a person wants to feature or highlight. One can use

it as a unique, informal way to express the views or opinions or can use it in amore formal way for the promotion of individuals, goods and services.

Whichever way you take, blogs are a classified successful communication tools.

They are useful in communicating with colleagues, partners, suppliers, existing

or potential customers, showcasing industry/company news, introducing new

products or services, marketing promotions or providing tips, establishing a

company or individual's reputation or brand, improving operations (e.g. projectmanagement or tech support knowledge-sharing), Demonstrating expertise in a

particular field, establishing competitive differentiation and simplifying and

accelerating the publishing process.

The Debate:Blogs are often considered as two way communication tools but there is a

discrepancy regarding that since there are two groups of people constantly

debating whether blogs can be described as an effective two way communication

tool or not. While some people believe that blogs do let two strangers with the

same interest to interact with each other on the same platform, there is the second


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group that believes that blogs are random entries that fail the system of

communication between two parties, irrespective of the area of interest.

Blogs as a two way communication tool:Many people believe that blogs are a way of expressing the opinion of a person,

in this case a blogger and expressing whatever he feels is true and correct. It,

therefore, plays a very important role in establishing the fact that blogs are

indeed a powerful two way communication tool, where the readers can

communicate their opinion with the blogger as well and hence can explicitly

enunciate both way communication process. One can easily direct the contentand let the readers guide them to write more whereas simultaneously,

establishing the need and scope to post more articles and adhere to it.

Blogs failing as a two way communication tool:According to many people, blogs are just a platform for people who cannot

express themselves otherwise to establish their whimsical discussions and points.

According to research done on a small group of people on Facebook, however, it

was deduced that three out of every five people in the age group of twenty to

thirty read blog posts on subject matters related to health, lifestyle, finance, kids

and other niche. But they often did not communicate with the blogger. They just

took random ideas and left the blog site. This deduces that blogs sometimes do fail

as an effective communication tool and are not always effecting in reflecting the

ideology and thought process of the individuals writing or reading it.


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Aims and ObjectivesThe main aim of this project on Blogs-both way communication or not is to find

out whether the debate over the topic is justified or not. The focus will be to

establish three main facts:

- Establishing that blogs are indeed a two way communication tool that links

the blogger to the readers:

The dissertation work will be putting emphasis on the fact that there is a direct

communication established between the blogger as well as the reader through

various blogs. A compelling blog post that is extremely well written hits the

right note with the audiences and is well received. In contrast, a blog post that

is poorly written or is unable to get on well with the audiences receive bad

reviews and hence, as a result leads to poor or absolutely no communication

(in some cases, negative communication) between the two parties.

- Show that blogs provide great supplemental content and direct attention to

areas of interest that you want to feature or highlight:

Not all blogs are based on the personal whims of the bloggers and this project

will be aimed at providing impetus to this very point. There are various kinds

of blog posts depending on what the particular blogger wants to convey. Like,

for example there is a personal fan blog of Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, a

Bollywood superstar, who believes that blogs are the best way to convey the

feeling with the fans and establish a direct link with them. Thus in his

personal blogs, one can see the accounts of his personal thoughts, his work

log, his personal photos, personal moments with family and friends and some

unknown secrets of the superstar that he has decided to convey through blogs.


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In this case, his personal blog is providing a great supplemental content for his

blog site and is directing the attention of all his fans directly in this space, so

that whenever they will feel like establishing a direct communication with

their favorite actor, they can directly communicate with him over here. Hence,

this example shows us exactly how the blogs are two way communication

tools and in the project, we will be establishing that.

- To portray blogs as a viable medium:

Blogs are regarded as extremely viable medium both for the readers as well as the

bloggers and we will emphasize on this point. For the blogger, since no lists aremaintained, there are no list server costs. Blogging software and blogging services

are also very reasonably priced. Some blogging services charge others to "read",

while others charge writers to "write", but overall the monthly charges are rather

minimal either way. Posters get to see the results of a post immediately as the post

appears simultaneously after posting. Blogs may also use a TrackBack system

that allows the visitor to see who has written the original post and any other

entry concerning it. The system works by sending a 'ping' between the blogs, and

therefore providing the alert. Blogs can also alert you when new or updated

content is added. TrackBack typically appears below a blog entry and shows a

summary of what has been written on the target blog, together with a URL and

the name of the blog making the medium extremely visible. There are limitless

blogs that can be maintained on a monthly, weekly or a daily basis. For the

readers, most of the blogs are free to read and can be accessed at almost any point

of time. Hence they are extremely viable and in the project we will be focusing on

the different points that make it so.


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HypothesisEstablishing that blogs are a two way communication tool that links the bloggerto the readers:In order to establish this particular point, we have taken the interview of Mr.

Anamik Adhikary, a professional blogger who pens down his ideas in his

professional blog site. Here is what the famous blogger has to say:

Q- Tell us something about yourself.

A-I am Anamik, an Engineering graduate in IT, a freelancer, web developer and

blogger. I also happen to click photographs when theres something I cant take

my eyes off.

Q- What do you convey through blogs?

A-My blogfootstepnjournalism basically focuses on the issues that catch myattention, which are real-life incidents. Simple ones that everyone sees but very

few observe, or sometimes hardcore technical stuff, or current issues that kind of

triggers my emotions to pen down my thoughts.I convey the fact that life is beautiful and very inspiring. The thing we lack is our

way of looking at it. There are some amazing people and amazing things

happening around us every moment. If we stop for a few seconds to observe

them, we would be just spellbound.
http://footstepnjournalism.wordpress.com/http://footstepnjournalism.wordpress.com/http://footstepnjournalism.wordpress.com/http://footstepnjournalism.wordpress.com/


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Q- Do you think that readers are attracted to your blog posts? If yes, then what is

the attraction factor?

A- Yes I think readers are attracted to my blog, and in a short span of a month

or two, my blog has reached a hit count of 2500+, which I consider to be quite an

achievement. Moreover, the readers are not limited to India or just Asian

countries. I have got readers from USA, Canada and Europe too. Many college

students, entrepreneurs, journalists, writers are regular followers of my blog,

which kind of makes a point for me to believe that readers are attracted to my

blog.

B- I would rate the kind of topics I chose and the lucidity of my writing as the

most attractive feature. Its basically because people can connect to them. Like,

every day you see the cobbler sitting under a tree the whole day mending shoes.

But have you ever thought that this man could ever be passionate about his

work? And you could end up getting valuable business ethics from him? Thats

what I do. Pick up the simplest of the things. Because I believe simplicity is the

ultimate sophistication.

Q- Do you communicate with your readers through the blog posts?

A-Yes, thats an obvious point. It helps me to get real time feedback from readers

and in a way I also get to interact with them on-on-one. Feedback of some

readers, who are highly knowledgeable, is immensely helpful.

Q- So do you think that blogs are a connecting factor between your readers and

yourself? To put it simply does blogs act as a two way communication tool or not?

A-Yes, indeed it does. You know who your readers are, and to whom are you

targeting. Plus it also helps to create a one-to-one bond with the readers. Some


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positive criticism from their part also helps bloggers like me to further improve

my writing. And appreciation from their end gives a good feeling.

Based on the interview, we have derived certain deductions that will help us in

focusing on the fact that blogs are indeed a two way communication tool:

Blogs are easy to maintain and easy to start- If someone does not know

html to set it up, using a template from one of the many tools available

online makes it easy to start. One just needs to post his info into the

template, just like Mr. Anamik did and get going.

They act as a connecting medium between the blogger and the reader

Blogs are not restricted to the geographical boundary of a particular

country or nation. Here, we could see that, Mr. Adhikary has readers from

all over the World, and not just from a particular city.

The blogger gets regular feedback from the readers; all the feedbacks are

from real time users and hence are absolutely valid and communicative.

These are definitely not spam and leads to avid interaction between the two

parties, the blogger and the reader.

Feedback from specialized readers, some of whom are experts in a

particular niche that the blogger writes about, act as a catalyst to hone the

skill of the blogger himself. Thus two way communications is established

positively.

According to the interviewee, the feedbacks from the readers, both positive

as well as negative help to negate the shortcomings of the blogger andinfact help aggressively in motivating him to write better in the future.


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Blogs provide great supplemental content and direct attention to areas of interestthat you want to feature or highlight:To prove this,a survey has been carried among fifty young and adult individualsin the age group of twenty to forty years. Here is the finding of the survey:

Findings of the Sample survey among 50 people:1. Out of those fifty people, forty people read blogs on a regular basis whereas

ten blog have either not heard about it or have no inclination to read them.

2. Out of those forty people, most people read blogs owing to the below-mentioned points:

Specific reasons that make the blogs an effective two-way communication tool:

The above-mentioned reasons are the most pertinent facts when compared with a

speculative list of twenty people:

Compelling, well-written content: Ten people are of the opinion that noone, either online or Offline, wants to read material that is poorly written,

difficult or boring to read. Hence an important reason why blogs are highly

effective is due to the fact that they are extremely compelling as well as

well written and cater to the mindset of the people.

Do you read blogs?

yes

no


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Updated material: Fifteen people in the group said that they prefer readingblogs because they are constantly updated andjust as in newsletters or e-zines. So it has been deduced that if

material is not updated continually, then the audience eventually dies. Rousing topics. Ten people opinionated that they are attracted by blogs

because it caters to their area of interest and the particular niche that they

love. Topics of interest to a wide range of readers succeed more than topics

that appeal to very few, or are rather

dull topics.

A nice layout and visual appeal: 5 people have voted for this.A blog is akinto a Web site for written materials, and just like in the design of a Web site,

every care should be made to have the blog be visually appealing and

friendly to visitors.

3. The third point also illustrated the same result as point number two.

Twenty-Two are of the opinion that they read blogs for the purpose of

entertainment as well as education.

Reasons to read Blogs

Rousing topics

A nice layout and visual appeal

Updated material

Compelling, well-written

content


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4. A staggering thirty five people post regular comments on blogs and interact

with the bloggers.

5. Out of those thirty-five, thirty people think that the blogger pays attention

to what the reader has to say and hence are convinced that through blogs,

they can properly communicate with the blogger.

6. All the forty people reading blogs on a regular basis feel that blogs are the

perfect medium to convey thoughts and opinions to the many readers. This

is a staggering number since everyone believes the same thing.

7. Only twenty-five people think that blogs are an apt two-way

communication between the blogger and the readers whereas rest 15people feels that sometimes they do communicate with the blogger and

sometimes they do not. The negative numbers of people have also admitted

that they personally do not feel like commenting on every possible blog and

even if they sometimes do, they do not bother to go through it again to

check the comments or the reply of the blogger.

Inference:Based on the above mentioned sample survey, it can be concluded that blogs are

an effective two way communication tool and in the cases when it is not, the

reason is owing to the fact that most of the individuals are not really adaptable

with the concept or the flow of communication between the blogger and the

reader is not swift and requires some tactful approach from the blogger so that

whatever he wants to convey is successfully reaching to the readers or the groupto which he wants to convey the message. But in the rest of the cases, blogs do

provide great supplemental content and direct attention to areas of interest that

you want to feature or highlight:


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Portraying Blogs as a viable medium:In order to provide this point, we will be doing a case study of an elite personality

of our country who has re-established himself as the superstar once he started

interacting with the audiences over his blogs- Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, often

considered the superstar of Indian film industry has an active blog since the last

six years. His official idhttp://srbachchan.tumblr.com/ speaks about his daily life,

his day to activities, tight from cleaning a desk to attending an award function.

The pictures shared on the site provide snapshots to the stars personal life and

shows his interaction with the family members, staff, colleagues of the film

fraternity and others.

Case study:Blogs allow for greater interactions between Mr. Bachchan and his fans:Nolonger is a newsletter, calendar of events, e-mails and other one-way

communication enough for public relations. Great PR communities inspire great

conversations. Dr. Scott McLeod, an elite social media analyst states that robustecosystems of multiple communication channels are better than more limited

analog-only print/phone channels. In other words, there is a need for two-way,

real-time communication allowing for engaging conversations with fans.

However, being cognizant of your cliental and providing a menu of

communication tools is key. As individuals, we must ensure that groups of fans do

not get left behind. Mr. Bachhan remarked, Everything I blog also shows up on

Facebook, Twitter, official Website, and Google Plusits not hard to have things

post simultaneously. Remember, a hardcopy is still necessary for some

families. Blogging tools provide stronger connections to fans, critics, and to theworld:The most important thing about communication is to hear what isnt being
http://srbachchan.tumblr.com/http://srbachchan.tumblr.com/http://srbachchan.tumblr.com/http://srbachchan.tumblr.com/


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said. Connecting through social media like blogs allows opportunities for

stakeholders to have a voice and speak about the issues and concerns they may

have. As bloggers, it is important to respond to feedback in a timely and

appropriate but honest manner. A powerful advantage of social media is the

Positive Public RelationsIndividuals should take advantage of blogs by sharing

and promoting all the amazing things happening within their profession with the

world. Blog use can have a significant impact on M r. Bacchhans personal andprofessional growth.Inference:In the case of Mr. Bachchan, the blog has certainly paved the way for a better

communication with his fans and followings. It is of little doubt that the

superstars blog post had been taken with open hands by his fans and the millions

of followings has discreetly proved the point that blogs are indeed a two way

communication tool through which Mr. Bachchan can interact with his fan

following and can even share and comment on their posts and comments. This

has definitely lead to a significant shift of the star tag that Bollywood superstars

used to get since most of them hardly interacted with their fans. Mr. Bachchan

used the blogs pragmatically to establish a strong bonding with his well wishers

and fan following and crafted a tactical PR strategy choosing to interact with

words rather than stardom.


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SummaryBlogs are an effective two way communication tool. From the case study, the

surveys and the interview of professional bloggers, it is absolutely of no doubt

that the popularity of the blogs as a viable medium is due to its ability to arouse

the interest of the readers in the particular area of their interest. The popularity is

also due to the diverse topics that blogs offer, their freshness and dynamic

marketing abilities that is luring even superstars and elite personalities as well as

well known companies to advertise them and the companies through this

particular medium. In short, one can very well use the blogs to interact with their

target audiences and create a niche for a particular domain through this medium.

Blogs carry in ideas, information, knowledge and other related matters from the

blogger to the readers and subsequently the feedback that the blogger gets from

these readers towards him, thereby establishing a proper communication system.

The best part about this particular medium is that any kind of unwanted noise,

like extreme negative publicity or abusive comments from any particular reader

that is not related to the blogs, but aims to inflict the sentiments, religious view or

the right of democracy of the blogger can be eliminated. This particular medium

is highly effective in transmitting information from the source (here the blogger)

to the end user (the readers) through a viable medium (internet) and receiving a

proper feedback (comments, likes, etc.) while eliminating any kind of noise

(negative publicity).

Blogger

readerfeedback


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Research MethodologyThe sources taken for the need of research are secondary sources of information

like the magazines, periodicals, books, journals, websites, blog diaries and blog

posts that have given immense source of information during the working of the

project. This apart, case study of an elite personalitys blog, interview of a

professional blogger and survey of twenty young blog readers have also been

taken to make the hypothesis stronger.

AcknowledgementI would like to thank my faculty professors Mr. Partha Das for providing

continuous guidance during the tenure of the dissertation work. It was with the

foresightedness and inspiration of him that the work could go along the right

direction. I would also like to thank Ms. Anurupa Kundu for helping me with

inputs during the assignment.

Bibliography:The reference for the work has been taken from the below-mentioned sources:

http://srbachchan.tumblr.com/

http://footstepnjournalism.wordpress.com/

http://blog.tribeinc.com/2012/10/02/the-importance-of-two-way-communication/

www.dailyblogtips.com/what-is-a-blog
http://srbachchan.tumblr.com/http://srbachchan.tumblr.com/http://footstepnjournalism.wordpress.com/http://footstepnjournalism.wordpress.com/http://blog.tribeinc.com/2012/10/02/the-importance-of-two-way-communication/http://blog.tribeinc.com/2012/10/02/the-importance-of-two-way-communication/http://blog.tribeinc.com/2012/10/02/the-importance-of-two-way-communication/http://footstepnjournalism.wordpress.com/http://srbachchan.tumblr.com/

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