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This article examines some theoretical aspects of information transfer and the possibility of distortion in the retransmission process in India. The data from the study demonstrate that there is cleavage in perception of innovations between change agents and their clients, especially those with whom they interact most frequently. These data support propositions derived from studies of serial transmission, suggesting that message distortion occurs. Furthermore, one can infer from these data that distortion may be most severe at an early stage in a series of transmissions and this is also consisted with much serial transmission research. The data indicate that professional change agents disagree in some important respects with their primary clientele with regard to innovations being advocated for further adoption in the study area. It is apparent from these data that any distortion which may occur in this field situation is not systematic in a particular direction. If cleavages of the kind described in the paper are more general in other planned contexts, in agriculture or family planning, or whatever the objectives of the program, then it may well be that further research on message distortion should have a high priority.