Natural selection is also a transaction. If the information does not have to reside in the content of the message, then it makes no difference whether the source of variation is random, designed, pre-programmed, or whatever.
The "Meaning" of variation lies in the transaction that occurs when the message is or is not replicated.
In most applications of the model to evolution theory, noise is treated as the path of mutation. Environmental (non-living, perhaps harmonic) pressures also contribute to noise. Noise can be either destructive or constructive.
Natural selection however also has the feature of death which is a "higher" aspect to the information model. IOW, if the message changes in such a way that the receivers or subsequent broadcasting sources perish, then nature has made a selection against the message. The converse would be true also.