What is a Message?

Content of our discussion will be answering what is a message? Second is the PIE,
there’s a PIE in communication? Ofcourse, Meron nga sa math at calculus eh. Syempre
lagyan din natin dito para lalo tayong ma stress. How is message being transmitted,
evaluating Images and of course, last but not least Practice.
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But before we proceed, I do have a question, those individuals who will answer my
questions will be given a recitation mark. I’ll only choose 1 person per question, so raise
you hand as fast as possible.
Why do we evaluate messages?
- The importance of evaluating the effectiveness of the messages is by developing
and using strategic questions to identify strengths and weaknesses.
How do we evaluate messages?
- To evaluate whether a message is effective, we can ask ourselves a series of
questions which reflects a message’s simplicity, specificity, structure, and
stickiness.

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So, since the presentation give us a hint on how we will be able to evaluate messages.
To evaluate whether a message is effective, we can ask ourselves a series of questions
which reflect a messages simplicity, specificity, structure, and stickiness. I’ll give you
short information about it before we proceed. Let me introduce to you the
Simplicity (read) – Simplicity means that they can be understood by a much broader
audience. it doesn’t require degree a dictionary, a lingo to understand a message.
Specificity (read) – Message must be detailed and clear in the content. Being concrete
or being focused and logical on the topic.
Structure (read) – There’s two types of structure in communication, the first one is about
the definite pattern of organization. It is all about the passing messages from one
person to another, what we are talking about is the structure of your message, from
general to more specific, even more specific, even more specific, and most specific.
Stickiness – There’s a lot of ideas about stickiness in communication, but we focused
ourselves on being on point wherein no words should come from out of nowhere.
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 - It is the final concept since you’ve portrayed or deliver your thoughts and ideas to
someone or to everyone. You can’t call your thought and ideas as a message
since you haven’t delivered it to each and everyone. There must be a medium
before we can call it as a message.
- You must have a subject which is all about something you wanted to share, and
the purpose is what you are trying to show, or you want us to do when you’ve
shared your message like do you want us to do such things? You want us to stop
from doing such things and such.
- An idea is expressed by a set of signs which must be understood and
interpreted, before it becomes a message. A sign is something that stands for
something else, just like verbal sign and nonverbal signs which considered as
medium for our communication.
A message, as we have defined it in Chapter 1, is the final concept of the idea by the
sender. It may be encoded in various forms like spoken words, written words, non-
verbal, pictures, film, advertisements, memes, visual and performing arts, etc.
Messages sent by different sources have their specific purpose. In this book, we will
take into consideration three purposes of message: to inform or educate, to entertain,
and to persuade.

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This is PIE; Persuade, Inform and Entertain

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The message tries to get you to do or to believe something. Read Example: What the
message is trying to tell us? Is the message encouraging us to try their scuba diving
lesson? Yes. Persuading Message can trigger our curiosity which leads us to try their
scuba diving lesson.
When your purpose is to persuade, your message should be able to influence
your audience towards your point. This may be the most challenging purpose of
message because you must change the mindset of your audience and let them believe
the idea you are offering.
A post on Facebook may influence you to think one way by narrating only their
side of the story. As a media literate individual, you should be able to detect biases and
read critically.

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The message teaches us about the Japanese Giant Hornets, which is true. Do we have
any idea about Japanese Giant Hornets before? I don’t think so, but because of this
message, we are informed that A Japanese Giant Hornets are deadly insects. They
don’t just say that Japanese Giant Hornets are deadly, but they also portrayed the Giant
Hornets which is very informative.
When your purpose is to inform or educate, your message should be neutral and
unbiased. At present, it is unfortunately very common that informative writeups in social
media, specifically Facebook, are not neutral or unbiased. You should learn how to be
vigilant in identifying or filtering fake news on social media by using critical thinking.
The usual platforms for this purpose of message are newspaper articles,
magazine features, news blogs, travel blogs, radio broadcasts, television newscasts,
documentaries, online video tutorials, seminars or conventions, and classroom lectures.

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The message entertained us, well for some of you might not but if you are interested in
this kind of field, it could be entertaining. It is entertaining because it answers our
question and it pull us from boredom since we will be forced to think about this
statement.
When your purpose is to entertain, your message should give your audience an
enjoyable and relaxing feeling. In oral communication, your message should be light
and short. In movies, it could be a romantic comedy. Whatever medium it is that you
use, always remember that you are pleasing your audience and holding their attention
while making a point.
The message may be humorous, but you do not need to be funny all the time just
to entertain. In oral communication, you can share interesting stories or an anecdote
that is relevant to the occasion. The usual platforms for this purpose of message are
music, movies, television sitcoms, sports broadcasts, social networks, and
entertainment media.

Page 16: The example of how the message does being transmitted:
First: We must have a sender first; the sender will generate thoughts and idea and he
will try to interpret it to communicate it to the receiver.
Second: Once the idea or thoughts was interpreted, it will be considered as a message.
It requires medium to communicate the message.
Lastly: There must be a receiver of your message who will be responsible for
interpreting your message, remember, we do not have systematically approach on
interpreting various messages, we do have our own understanding. And that
communication will be considered as a context.
Context which means the transmission of messages from one person to another.
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Let us now proceed with evaluating images.
- Identifying Source isn’t that much relevant since all we must do was to interpret
message. Maybe the most relevant here is Identifying the author or who ever
created the image, since the experience can be a factor why it was created. Just
like this one, it was the artwork of Santiago Vecino, wherein it was based on his
own experience where he was blinded by phone or being addicted to phone.
- Interpreting the information
- Understand implications, it is drawn from something although it is not explicitly
stated. You are putting yourself in a certain situation based on your interpretation
with the image.
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How do we be able to analyze every image?
Here are the questions that we must have to ask while evaluating certain images.

“VISUAL ANALYSIS”

How is the image composed?

What’s in the Background and what is in the foreground?
What are the most important visual?
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A sculpture of a muscular, naked man sitting on a rock. The man is in deep thought and
uses his whole body to think. His head is bent forward and leans on his right hand.
(What does it mean when our head is bent forward and leans on our right hand? Of
course, we are thinking.) His wrinkled face, knitted eyebrows, swollen nostrils,
compressed lips, and absent-minded gaze reinforce the idea that the man is deep in his
thoughts and is completely unaware of the world around him.
There are various interpretations of what and who The Thinker represents. When
initially creating this statue as part of The Gates of Hell, Rodin meant the figure to
represent Dante pondering about the fate of the damned people entering through the
Gates of Hell. This interpretation is based on Dante’s book Inferno, the first part of his
trilogy known as The Divine Comedy.
When Rodin started to create independent versions, he started to consider different
interpretations. Overall, he considered the statue to represent the struggle of the human
mind. But he also started to see hope in it. The thoughts slowly become clear, and the
man turns from a thinker, into a dreamer, and finally into a creator. Over time, other
interpretations have also been given. Some consider the statue to represent Rodin
himself. Others interpret the figure as Adam contemplating the sin he committed in
Paradise.
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Semiosis - is any form of activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, including the
production of meaning. A sign is anything that communicates a meaning, that is not the
sign itself, to the interpreter of the sign.

Semiotic - the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation. therefore,
refers to a kind of social interaction among individuals who try to make sense out of the
different interpretation possibilities of the sign.