I NEED YOUR COMMENT. Blogs: What for? June 30, 2013Uncategorized Blogs. Who would ever think that this simple word would mean “salvation?” Salvation is only for extraordinary individuals who transform into fancy clothes and acquire great powers. Salvation is what we see on cartoons when a character beats up an enemy of peace. Salvation is when the youth of this generation would save their broken Mother Land and help their fellowmen survive into forsaking poverty. Now, the question is how come a simple social networking site would mean salvation? Technological advancement in 20th century is considered the greatest thing that had happened in our whole life. Some say, this advancement is the greatest transformation in the world. True enough, the rise of these technologies gave birth to what we call ‘the internet’. However, the function of this thing is sometimes misused and is being ignored. Funny how people act that way, that they see simple things as useful until further notice. The fact is they sometimes don’t know that they are already ignoring the things that can be of greatest help to them. Just like the blog which served as a medium of communication during hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. According to a study by Macias, W., Hilyard, K., & Freimuth, V. (2009), blog has four main functions: communication, political, information and helping. It serves as information conduits and special networks during crises and emergencies when traditional information channels and communication devices may not be available. Moreover, the researchers used multistage sampling of posts two weeks after hurricane Katrina made land fall and found out that these posts were primarily corresponds to the four functions stated above and were used for pragmatic individual functions such as emotional support and companionship. Specifically, blogs were used in locating and rescuing loved ones, providing information to help locate missing people and offering assistance to the victims. Indeed, through this technological advancement, many lives were being saved during the hurricane Katrina crisis. People who were affected used their cellular phones, computer with batteries and other media to go online and post their current situation despite the absence of electricity. This only implies that aside from posting and expressing of a person’s life every hour, blogs may serve as vehicle to give voice in times of crisis or emergency situations when other media are not available. Also, implies the effectiveness of Internet in different circumstances. Moreover, we could not deny the fact that blogs were the only medium available to provide information because of the limited accessibility to the affected areas when hurricane Katrina made its land fall. On a second thought, there are also many networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram that could also do the four functions of the blog: communication, political, information and helping. So, instead of making blogs as a must-have addition to crisis communication toolkits as was mentioned by the researchers, why not having it as the internet as communication toolkit? Social media is still expanding, therefore, there are also many networking sites that will emerge which can also have the four functions. Until now, blogs are not so popular compared to other sites such as Facebook or Twitter. As the authors stated, “blogs are narrowly defined and used today”. Moreover, they also stated, “the four main functions also correspond to previous uses of both traditional and nontraditional blogs such as information and uncertainty reduction which indicates that the uses of media still remain consistent despite the passage of time and changes in media format”. This only implies that blogs are not the only media which can have those functions. Technology has already changed every people’s lives. Today, many of us would probably agree that we are already dependent to it. But then, we must always remember that technology is always changing and will likely affect the functions of communication media in any circumstances. We will always have to keep in mind that we shall use these technologies in a proper way. Who knows? Blogs may not be the only one that we can associate with the word ‘salvation’. Reference: Macias, W., Hilyard, K., &Freimuth, V. (2009). Blog Functions as Risk and Crisis Communication During Hurricane Katrina. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 05:17:17 +0000
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