This study aims to highlight the contribution to the message theory of two reputed Italian specialists: Cesare Brandi and Corrado Maltese. The zetectic method used is comparative, meta-analytical. Cesare Brandi's thesis is that communication is presence; it has two aspects: significant blatantness and message; the message is autonomous and as a form of presence it consists of a semantic deflagration. Corrado Maltese's thesis is that the message is not autonomous, but attributed; The message represents an organization of the meanings produced by the receiver and assigned to it by the broadcaster. The two Italian specialists illustrate two fundamental positions in the theory of the message: the autonomy of the message and the dependence of the message on the receiver.