I think the diff is that will mail forwarding, the recipients of the message will see that you forwarded it to them rather than directly sending it to them.
And if you have a mailing list of contacts that you email, they will get the message and it will appear as if you directly sent it to them.
A mailing list is simply a list of email addresses. you send one email to each email address at the same time.
mail forwarding is when you get an email, and you forward a copy of that email to other addresses
i actually recently created a graphical instruction document on how to create mailing lists for my pastors wife. let me know and i can get it to you.