"Inform" used to mean "to tell, to give information to, to notify." Increasingly, I am seeing it used to mean (I think) "to affect, to determine," as in this opening sentence from a recent blog entry:
"Although my blog entries rarely focus on my religious beliefs and practice, I like to think that those beliefs and practice inform many of my entries, as they inform most of my life."
Am I right in thinking that this is a new meaning of the word "inform"? When and how did this new meaning get started?