INTRODUCTION
Communication is defined as the way of exchanging or imparting information or knowledge to each other by appropriate means of communication medium (Serrat, 2017). With the increasing advancements in information technology and communication channels, social media has been emerging as the most preferred and popular form of communication. Social media is known as the applications of websites that allow their users to interact with each other by means of social networking or virtual data exchange. With the increasing participation of people on social media, communication is taking an entirely new form that does not require the physical involvement of participants. The report will discuss the emerging role of social media applications in the communication process.
Social media as a form of communication
The daily advancements in social media have led to the generation of new and creative avenues for exchanging routine communication needs. People not only use social media as a means of social interaction, but it also helps business organizations to reach a vast range of customers and business stakeholders to survive in this highly competitive and changing world. Earlier, the most effective form of communication used to be face-to-face communication so that there were no misinterpretations (Fraustino and Liu, 2017). However, with social media, it has become possible for people to transmit any information within a few seconds all over the world. Individuals can access each other without physical outreaching for face-to-face conversation.
Social media is not limited to geographical boundaries or the type of information to be shared. For instance, conventional means of communication allow only a limited type of data to be exchanged. Like in face-to-face interaction, people can use only verbal data. However, with social media, people can use text, images, videos, and visual as well as audio information. Social media includes the collection of different communication channels with variable content sharing, input, collaboration, and interaction.
In terms of cost, availability, scope, and accessibility, social media is considered to be one of the most efficient and fastest communication forms. However, with these advantages, social media communication also suffers from several limitations (Liu, Fraustino, and Jin, 2016). For example, the ease and flexibility of social media communication have made it so addicted that other forms of communication are gradually discarded, and thus social interaction has been limited to only the virtual world. The actual essence of communication has lost to some extent in this virtual form of communication. Social media communication has become highly popular among people due to its flexibility and huge scope. With social media, people can communicate with an unlimited number of users at the same time. Thus, information can be exchanged quickly with unlimited numbers of participants. Within a few seconds, social media platforms can be used to communicate with the desired number of participants.
Despite having huge popularity in the communication process, social media are still classified as informal means of communication (Serrat, 2017). The key reasons that limit the extent of social media utilization are its security threat, lack of controllability, and issues related to relevancy and trustworthiness. Most people consider this form of communication not reliable and is limited only to informal or casual communication.
Aim
To evaluate the role and impact of social media as a form of communication.
Objective
- To understand the various aspects of communication.
- To evaluate the increasing role of social media as a popular communication form
The rationale for choosing a topic
In this rapidly changing era where globalization is an integral element of various processes, it is not possible to survive without social media communication. Due to limited time availability, globalized demand, and increasing resources, social media is considered one of the most effective, cost-efficient, and fast forms of communication (Schivinski and Dabrowski, 2016). It is one of the reasons to choose this topic so that the importance of social media can be understood from a communication perspective instead of evaluating it for entertainment or networking purposes only.
Another reason for choosing this topic is that with an improved understanding of the communication aspect of social media, one can easily enhance their communication skills and professional development. Most people still misinterpret social media as a means of entertainment only. However, apart from entertainment, it is widely used by the individuals to exchange information, thus making it the most commonly promoted communication (Klemm and Skiba, 2018). Thus, it is mandatory to explore the topic and its impact on information exchange and communication purposes.
Relation Between Social Media and Communication
There is a deep relation between social media and communication in the current scenario. There are various technologies and tools used by the people to fulfill the purpose of the communication. In different ways, communication is important to meet various requirements of people. There are different mediums of communication used by people to transfer information and data from one place to another. There are various things that are important in the communication medium. All sources and mediums of communication are not effective to have an effective communication process (Razmerita, Kirchner, and Nielsen, 2016). After the invention of electronics, methods of communication have been changed, and the internet has given new dimension to the communication technologies. Social media is a part of this revolution in communication technology. The emerging trends in technology have changed the scenario of the communication process. These days, social media is one of the best ways of communication that is used by a large number of people. Because the smart phones, computers, and internet accessibility is very easy, it makes social media a more efficient way of communicating. This way of communicating is a much faster and safer way of communicating. There are various social media platforms out there that are providing better options to perform communication without any trouble. It allows an individual person to keep in touch with other people and relatives in remote and rural areas.
The role of social media is huge in the process of communication. Some other process of communication are not much efficient and flexible as social media communication. There are various facilities are provided by the social media technology which are not available in other form and methods of communication. There are some social media platforms are there which are providing facility of texting services and voice chat and video chat. All the people need is a smat phone which is easy to make available and internet connectivity. Social media make the process of communication time efficient and cost effective (Floreddu and Cabiddu, 2016). There are some benefits of social media communication that can force the users to use these platforms to make communication with other people around globe. There are no limitation in social media communication and it is completely free of cost. User only have to make an account on the particular platform to communicate with other people.
Some of the main advantages of social media communication are that this is much faster and more reliable than other communication methods. It provides the flexibility of time and place. This process is highly cost-effective, and there is no time limitation or charge applied to the communication process. Almost the entire the entire population around the world is connected to social media, so it is more effective than other sources of communication.
Source Evaluation
The information that is collected to develop data and information base various online and offline sources are used. This is important to ensure the authentication of the sources that are used in the report. To prepare these data base literature of various authorised authors has been considered in the report. The source of information that are used in data collection process are verified and authenticated by authorities. To make work more effective the references are also provided in the end of report that can help to get more detailed information of the topic that is considered in the study. There are some online articles and journals are also used in the research work which are related to the topic (Lodhia and Stone, 2017). The online sources that are used in study process are also cross checked with other offline sources to make work more effective efficient to develop better knowledge. As per the evaluation that is performed for the report, sources used in developing knowledge are directly connected to the topic that is chosen for study. There is detailed information is provided in these information sources related to social media communication. This detailed information and verified sources make report more relevant.
CONCLUSION
This report is concluding the importance of social media communication in the current situation. There are different sources of communication used in the research work where the use of social media in the communication process has been explained. Detailed information related to the role of social media communication has been provided in the report. Various aims and objectives have been formed in the report to meet the requirements of this report. The relation between communication and social media has also been mentioned in the report.
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