Message
(a communication (usually brief) that is written or spoken or signaled) "he sent a three-word message"
message, content, subject matter, substance (what a communication that is about something is about) "
The concept is also used in
Information theory.
Janecke (1994, p 4) defines: "Basic Communication-Theoretical Concepts".
"A message is a sequence of characters arranged sequentially in space on a
medium. A measure for the information value of a message is the extent of the
state transitions it produces in a receiver".
"The contents of a message is the sum of all possible information that may be
extracted from it".
"A message contains knowledge (constitutes knowledge) if its contents consist in
universally valid statements on the world".
Janecke's definition of message corresponds well to how this concept is
understood in Information theory. His
description show signs of a fundamentalist epistemology in which knowledge is
seen as the accumulation of facts. From a more interpretative/pragmatic point of
view a message contains knowledge if it provides information for somebody.
Literature:
Janecke, P. (1994). To what End Knowledge Organization. Knowledge Organization, 21(1), 3-11.
WordNet: http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=message
Birger Hjørland
Last edited: 08-05-2006