Vital Message

The intent and purpose of any content is to transmit [a] vital message[s] to its audience. Under the content encoder-decoder model, whereby the content creator encodes a message and in the process of consuming content the audience decodes it, it is up to the consumer of that content to deduce what the vital message is. A vital message is/are the key point[s] that the content creator is trying to get across to the consumer.

How then is the content consumer (decoder) able to figure out what the content creator’s (encoder) vital message is? As the encoder has little ability to judge the decoder’s state of mind, context, or system of logic, the vital message intended by the encoder may be lost to the interpretation of the decoder. Therefore, the encoder must take all possible measures to influence the decoder to share the same characteristics needed to extract the vital message as the encoder intended. This can be done through imagery that puts the decoder in a certain state of mind, concise and precise language that allows little chance for misinterpretation, etc. On the whole, the encoder needs to do as much as he or she can to create content that facilitates the decoding of the vital message in the way the encoder intended.

The decoder should also take steps in order to increase the likelihood that he or she is interpreting the vital message in the way the encoder intended. These steps could be to approach the content with an open mind, engaging in reflexive thought, or to subject oneself wholly to the experience offered by the content. That is, the decoder ought to do as much as possible to put themselves in the mindset that the encoder intended them to be in. With these steps, along with the proper encoding of the content, the decoder is much more likely to be able to grasp the intended vital message of the content.

- Avery Campbell