Message & Meaning

This lecture was concerning the structure of communication- how we use it and arrange it, and in turn how we seek it and how it manifests itself. As graphic designers, attempting to convey and tailor how we communicate an idea or message, and how it might subsequently be interpreted, should be under constant review, in order to improve our craft. As Michael Rock stated- "difference between poetry and practical message is that the latter is only successful when we correctly infer the intention".  This means that communication is only successful when our intended audience reacts based on the message we have given them.

Therefore we were given a breakdown as to what message and meaning is:

• Message: a short communication transmitted by words or other means from one person, or group to another.
• Meaning: what the source or sender expresses, communicates, or conveys in their message to the observer or receiver, and what the receiver infers from the current context.

After we were clarified that a message is inferred from its meaning, we were introduced to how feedback is received between the sender (encoder) and the audience (receiver), and how each part is reliant on each other in order for the message to successfully received, as demonstrated in this graph.

Encode

We first start by translating information into a message in the form of symbols that represent ideas or concepts; a good way for the sender to improve encoding message is to mentally visualise communication from the receiver's point of view. The sender should ask themselves different questions, so they can select an appropriate channel:

• is the message urgent?
• is immediate feedback needed?
• is documentation or a permanent record required?
• is documentation being communicated to someone inside/outside?
• is content complicated, controversial or private?

Channel

Once sender has answered all of these questions, they will be able to choose an effective channel (a medium in which they can produce their message). Each channel have strengths dependent on situational effectiveness, which is important to know depending what you're representing. Here are the various types of channel a designer may choose:

Also, signal of channel needs to be clear; more interruptions (noise) is less likely for the message to be received. Using all channels indiscriminately may dilute and distract from the key message.

Design Authorship

Next we were introduced to artists who conveyed messages within their pieces. Richard Linklater for example always asks questions of the meaning of life and presents it to the viewer from a comparative point of view, as shown in Waking Life.

Decoder

All interpretations by the receiver are influenced by their experiences, attitudes, knowledge, skills,
perceptions, and culture; it is similar to the sender’s relationship with encoding. Subsequently showcasing a design in a different culture may perceive the work completely different from the designer's original intention (due to cultural and societal differences).

Marshall McLuhan, who become a key figure in media studies and the effect of technology on people, was announced to us, introducing his key book The Medium is the Massage. The ‘massage’ or ‘mass-age’ started as a typographic mistake as it was meant to read ‘message’, but was kept when McLuhan approved of the unintentional correction and its relationship to the subject matter.

Within it, McLuhan explores how the development of technology, from print to the internet (referred to as the "Global Village"), is reshaping and restructuring patterns of social interdependence and every aspect of our personal life.

The Content + The Message = The Message

McLuhan described key points of change in how people have viewed the world and how those views have been affected and altered by the adoption of new media. Change and progress are an inevitable part of social life, those who choose not to change with their environment do so at the risk their own social survival:

"Survival  not possible of one approaches his environment, 'the social drama', with a fixed, unchangeable point of view- the witless repetitive response to the unperceived"   - Marshall McLuhan

From this lecture I have learnt to consider that symbols can mean one thing for a particular person and therefore have to be considerate when composing a design; for example a blade could mean war. but to someone else it could symbolise surgery. Without feedback, a sender cannot confirm that the receiver has interpreted the message correctly, which shows feedback from an outside source (in my case my tutors) can help improve work.


References:

• https://unilearn.hud.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/pid-1665427-dt-content-rid-2508576_1/courses/TFD1413-1516/09%20Meaning%20and%20Message.pdf
• Waking Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk2DeTet98o
• The Medium is the Massage: https://mcluhangalaxy.wordpress.com/2015/03/06/from-the-medium-is-the-massage-1967-to-the-age-of-earthquakes-2015/