Successive layers of Information

 In our quest for the impact or value of information, we "focus on how people construct sense", as Dervin and Nilan (1986, p. 16) advocated, we should then recognize that it is only in the contents state that the essential value of information might be discovered. 

This by no means implies that the other states have no value. They clearly have one, would it be only transitory. The perspectives which have so far prevailed were perhaps too much dependent on grossly oversimplified types of "users" or "use" seeking an immediate solution to discrete problems. While a value of information can be found there, 

I feel that its lasting value, if any, is far more significant. 

 The contents state is itself made of successive layers: 

 --semantic, --syntactic, and --paradigmatic. 

 All three contribute to the construction of meaning.