23/11/2015 - Lecture
Message - A (usually) short communication transmitted by words, signals, or other means from one person, station, or group to another.
Quote - "The difference between poetry and practical messages is that the latter are successful only when we correctly infer the intention." - Michael Rock.... what I got from this quote is that a message is successful if it's direct and has a meaning behind it which targets the audience you want, that's when you get a reaction from the audience.
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. To successfully convey meaning into something, the meaning has to be tested and explored in various environments to see which is the most effective, it needs to consider every 'devices' as in shape, form, language and to do that, it needs to be experimented because one message might work on certain people but others won't react to it. If it's successful, contextual behaviour change is possible and the receiver will remember the message.
Send (Encode) - Translating information into a message in the form of symbols that represent ideas or concepts. For the sender to successfully encode their message and improve it, they must mentally visualize the communication from the receiver's point of view.
For a message to be sent, the sender must question themselves and answer them like is the message urgent?, is immediate feedback needed?, is the message being communicated inside or outside?, is the content complicated, controversial or private?, and when the sender can answer those questions, they will be able to choose the most effective channel.
Channel (Medium) - The channel is the medium of transmission. It's important to understand that each channel will have their strengths and weaknesses depending on the situation so some channel will be more effective than others which is why the sender must choose the right channel that is the most effective.
There are different channels that a sender can choose from like TV, the Web, Radio or printing but choosing the wrong channel might affect the message you are trying to convey.
Design Authorship - The designer is the message setter, they set their own message and work towards it. They seek at how the message was received, not what the message actually contained.
I was fascinated with the Kurzgesagt video because it's a good example of how to effectively convey a message. They produce message based information videos which teaches the audience different things and they convey the message effectively by explaining the information clearly, it's very visual, it's colourful so it catches the viewer's attention, there's many things going on and it didn't feel formal unlike other message based information videos which can be boring, slow and formal.
Receive (Decode) - The receiver's reaction is influenced by experiences, attitude, culture and knowledge which is similar to the sender's relationship with encoding.
Quote - "Survival is not possible if one approaches his environment, the 'social drama', with a fixed, unchangeable point of view - the witless repetitive response to the unperceived." - Marshall McLuhan.... what I got from this is that if one does not change their opinions and point of view, they will fall behind because the world is changing and moving on like culture and social media and if they don't adapt to it then they won't successfully affect the audience and won't get a reaction from them.
Conclusion........ What I got from this lecture is that one message can mean something to one person but might not for others or it might mean something else to others like symbols but how the message is conveyed is important, the sender needs to consider so many things like the audience, the channel, what they are trying to convey, they also need to consider various 'devices'. A successful message must have an effective channel which I feel is important because how a message is conveyed, helps define the importance of the message, the wrong channel could affect the message.
