Is information, by definition, a product of self-awareness?

My first draft of this question was: can information exist without consciousness? The second: is information consciousness on its own? The third what you see above.

This question was inspired by a comment of RealEyesRealizeRealLies, although it is not directly related to that comment.

I’m imagining a universe with no conscious or self-aware entities in it. Can this universe contain any information if there is no one to think about it? Does information require a mind in order to exist?

Or do conscious thinkers not matter. The information is there, latent, in everything that exists?

Discuss amongst yourselves.