undefined means a variable has been declared but has not yet been assigned a value :

var testVar;
console.log(testVar); //shows undefined
console.log(typeof testVar); //shows undefined

null is an assignment value. It can be assigned to a variable as a representation of no value :

var testVar = null;
console.log(testVar); //shows null
console.log(typeof testVar); //shows object

From the preceding examples, it is clear that undefined and null are two distinct types: undefined is a type itself (undefined) while null is an object.

Proof :

console.log(null === undefined) // false (not the same type)
console.log(null == undefined) // true (but the "same value")
console.log(null === null) // true (both type and value are the same)

and

null = 'value' // Uncaught SyntaxError: invalid assignment left-hand side
undefined = 'value' // 'value'

It looks like you're trying to access the property items of a variable x.

And if x is undefined, then calling x.items will give you the error you mentioned.

Doing a simple:

if (x) {
  // CODE here
}

or

if (x && x.items) { // ensures both x and x.items are not undefined
  // CODE here
}

EDIT:

You can now use Optional Chaining, which looks sweet:

if (x?.items)

What you can do is check whether you props is defined initially or not by checking if nextProps.blog.content is undefined or not since your body is nested inside it like

componentWillReceiveProps(nextProps) {

    if(nextProps.blog.content !== undefined && nextProps.blog.title !== undefined) {
       console.log("new title is", nextProps.blog.title);
       console.log("new body content is", nextProps.blog.content["body"]);
       this.setState({
           title: nextProps.blog.title,
           body: nextProps.blog.content["body"]
       })
    }
}

You need not use type to check for undefined, just the strict operator !== which compares the value by their type as well as value

In order to check for undefined, you can also use the typeof operator like

typeof nextProps.blog.content != "undefined"