View source for Message

{{Short description|Discrete unit of communication}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Distinguish|Massage|Messuage}}

[[File:Glaspalast München 1891 062.jpg|thumb|240px|''Geheime Korrespondenz'' ''(secret correspondence)'', by Carl von Bergen]]
[[File:MountScopusHeadstone2.JPG|thumb|240px|A headstone message in the [[Jerusalem]] British [[World War I]] Cemetery on [[Mount Scopus]]]]

A '''message''' is a unit of communication that conveys information from a sender to a receiver. It can be transmitted through various forms, such as spoken or written words, signals, or electronic data, and can range from simple instructions to complex information.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Communication in Everyday Life: A Survey of Communication |isbn=978-1-5443-4987-9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Theories of Human Communication |isbn=978-1-57766-706-3}}</ref>

The consumption of the message relies on how the recipient interprets the message, there are times where the recipient contradicts the intention of the message which results in a boomerang effect.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03637751.2020.1813317 |access-date=2024-05-24 |journal=Communication Monographs |doi=10.1080/03637751.2020.1813317 |title=Proattitudinal versus counterattitudinal messages: Message discrepancy, reactance, and the boomerang effect |date=2021 |last1=Zhao |first1=Xinyan |last2=Fink |first2=Edward L. |volume=88 |issue=3 |pages=286–305 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Message fatigue is another outcome recipients can obtain if a message is conveyed too much by the source.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03637751.2016.1250429 |access-date=2024-05-24 |journal=Communication Monographs |doi=10.1080/03637751.2016.1250429 |title=Message fatigue: Conceptual definition, operationalization, and correlates |date=2017 |last1=So |first1=Jiyeon |last2=Kim |first2=Soela |last3=Cohen |first3=Heather |volume=84 |pages=5–29 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

One example of a message is a [[press release]], which may vary from a brief report or statement released by a public agency to commercial publicity material.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07359683.2012.705708 |access-date=2024-05-24 |journal=Health Marketing Quarterly |doi=10.1080/07359683.2012.705708 |title=Message Strategies in Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertising: A Content Analysis Using Taylor's Six-Segment Message Strategy Wheel |date=2012 |last1=Tsai |first1=Wan-Hsiu (Sunny) |last2=Lancaster |first2=Alyse R. |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=239–255 |pmid=22905945 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Another example of a message is how they are portrayed to a consumer via an advertisement.

==History==
{{Main|History of communication}}
{{Expand section|date=March 2022}}

==Roles in human communication ==

In communication between humans, messages can be verbal or [[nonverbal]]:
* A verbal message is an exchange of information using words. Examples include face-to-face communication, telephone calls, voicemails, emails, etc.
* A nonverbal message is communicated through actions or behaviors rather than words, such as conscious or unconscious [[body language]].

The phrase "send a message" or "sending a message" is also used for actions taken by a party to convey that party's attitude towards a certain thing. For example, a government that executes people who commit acts of [[treason]] is sending a message that treason will not be tolerated.<ref name="Cambridge">{{Cite web|url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/send-a-message|title=Send a message definition |work=[[Cambridge English Dictionary]]|access-date=September 24, 2023}}</ref> Conversely, a party that appears through its actions to endorse something that it opposes can be said to be "sending the wrong message",<ref name="Cambridge"/> while one which appears to simultaneously endorse contradictory things can be said to be sending "mixed messages".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://medium.com/mindfully/a-mixed-message-is-the-message-b6c9b36e6fa7|title=A Mixed Message is THE Message|first=A.|last=Marie|work=Medium|date=November 8, 2022}}</ref>

== In computer science ==

=== Events vs. Messages ===
In [[Distributed computing|distributed systems]], [[Event (computing)|events]] represent a fact or state change (e.g., ''OrderPlaced'') and are typically broadcast asynchronously to multiple consumers, promoting loose coupling and scalability. While events generally don’t expect an immediate response, acknowledgment mechanisms are often implemented at the infrastructure level (e.g., Kafka commit offsets, SNS delivery statuses) rather than being an inherent part of the event pattern itself.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Kleppmann |first=Martin |title=Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems |isbn=978-1-4493-7332-0}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |title=Building Event-Driven Microservices: Leveraging Organizational Data at Scale |isbn=978-1-4920-5789-5}}</ref>

In contrast, messages serve a broader role, encompassing commands (e.g., ''ProcessPayment''), events (e.g., ''PaymentProcessed''), and documents (e.g., ''DataPayload''). Both events and messages can support various delivery guarantees, including at-least-once, at-most-once, and exactly-once, depending on the technology stack and implementation. However, exactly-once delivery is often achieved through idempotency mechanisms rather than true, infrastructure-level exactly-once semantics.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

Delivery patterns for both events and messages include publish/subscribe (one-to-many) and point-to-point (one-to-one). While request/reply is technically possible, it is more commonly associated with messaging patterns rather than pure event-driven systems. Events excel at state propagation and decoupled notifications, while messages are better suited for command execution, workflow orchestration, and explicit coordination.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

Modern architectures commonly combine both approaches, leveraging events for distributed state change notifications and messages for targeted command execution and structured workflows based on specific timing, ordering, and delivery requirements.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* {{Annotated link |Airmail}}
* {{Annotated link |Amateur radio emergency communications}}
* {{Annotated link |Beacon}}
* {{Annotated link |Communications satellite}}
* {{Annotated link |Communication studies}}
* {{Annotated link |Drums in communication}}
* {{Annotated link |Email}}
* {{Annotated link |Emergency Alert System}}
* {{Annotated link |Encryption}}
* {{Annotated link |Express mail}}
* {{Annotated link |Flag semaphore}}
* {{Annotated link |Instant messaging}}
* {{Annotated link |List of interstellar radio messages}}
* {{Annotated link |Mail}}
* {{Annotated link |Message in a bottle}}
* {{Annotated link |Network packet}}
* {{Annotated link |Optical telegraph}}
* {{Annotated link |Pioneer plaque}}
* {{Annotated link |Pony Express}}
* {{Annotated link |Radio}}
* {{Annotated link |Semaphore}}
* {{Annotated link |Semiotics}}
* {{Annotated link |Sign language}}
* {{Annotated link |Smoke signal}}
* {{Annotated link |SMS}}
* {{Annotated link |Telegraphy}}
* {{Annotated link |Telephony}}
* {{Annotated link |Television}}
* {{Annotated link |Voicemail}}
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{commons category-inline|Messages}}
* {{wiktionary-inline}}
* {{Wikiquote-inline}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Communication]]