When Claude Shannon (1949) developed his model of information, he was concerned with noise in telephone systems and how to reduce it or change the message structure to insure its reception. Human information systems have noise, too.

To avoid any confusion with other various notions of information, which fail to recognize that one can receive information without being informed, one may use a specific definitional model by noting the difference between the message and meaning in the definition of information. This definition critiques Paisley’s (1980) notion of information, which refers to any stimulus that changes the information recipient’s cognitive structure (see also, Hayes, 1991).

Since the term information may require particular focus on the information seeker or recipient – which is beyond the concern of this post – I prefer using the term message propagation.

In his definition of information, Hayes (1991) emphasizes the need to differentiate among facts, data, information, communication, and understanding. Information, according to Hayes involves data processing. We will assume that the processing of data is similar to message propagation, a process that is external to the information recipient. Once the information is communicated, the recipient derives the meaning from the message.

This process of message propagation is dependent on various factors such as context and the cognitive ability to both code and decode the data. A STOP sign in the Gujarati language is a piece of message. But my cognitive inability to understand the language makes me unable to decode the meaning.

Information does not therefore necessarily incorporate the element of meaning. Since the process of crafting the message is not similar to the process of extracting meanings, one must use the term message propagation to refer to what is ordinarily defined as information. I have adopted this approach in examining the process of propagating the message - not meaning - in a restrictive information environment.

Although Hayes (1993) has used this approach in his examination of the relationship among terms that informs information complexity, he demarcates terms as either internal or external to the recipient. I have advanced that argument by positing that message propagation requires an understanding of factors external and internal of the recipient.