What is “content”?
“Content is king!” This pronouncement has been in vogue among business and technical communicators for the past few years. But what exactly is content? Is it just the latest buzzword for yet another vaguely defined idea?
The fact is that content — though a decidedly broad term — does refer to rather specific information components. Informally, content can be considered more or less the same as subject matter, though the latter term can refer either to material that exists only in rough form or to polished material that is ready for use as a meaningful component in a finished information product. In contrast, content usually refers to material that has been carefully constructed and polished to stand as a distinct, meaningful unit. Unlike information, which often is wrongly used interchangeably with the term, raw content is not (or should not have to be) associated with a specific purpose or audience.
Raw content can consist of a paragraph or a page of text about a particular topic; it can be a diagram, a photograph, a video or a sound bite. Whatever the medium or format, though, a good piece of content should be able to stand on its own. At its best, content is readily identifiable by its type (e.g., procedure, introduction) and format (e.g., bulleted list, schematic diagram) and should be reconfigurable for use as a component of at least one finished information product.
You should be able to pull all of the content you need into a coherent, polished piece of communication that meets the needs of a particular audience and serves a clearly defined purpose. When you’ve done that, you’ll have a successful communication product.
