The communication‐information relationship in system‐theoretic perspective

There is a growing recognition that information and communication are interrelated in very fundamental ways. The disciplines of Communication and Information/Library Studies have a long tradition of common interests and concepts—a tradition that has provided what might be termed a “scholarly push” toward increasing interdisciplinary linkages between the fields. But the intersection of Communication and Information Studies cannot be explained only, or even largely, in terms of “scholarly push.” Far more crucial to growing interest in the communication‐information relationship is the momentum and rhetoric of the marketplace. These forces give urgency to the need for frameworks that clarify the theoretical relationship between communication and information by identifying similarities and differences, exploring ways in which differences may be complementary and/or supplementary, and facilitating theoretical integration in general. This article addresses these issues from a system‐theoretic perspective. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.