Information is moved around like canned goods, packaged by the sender, opened by the receiver.
Writers and editors are accustomed to thinking that they way the write something determines its meaning. The new theory emphasizes how readers construct meaning. In the new view, readers are far more active and unpredictable. They make decisions about what to read, how to read it, how to think about what they read, what to remember, what other information to remember it with. They bring context, approach, bias, and personal experiences to what they read.