-The knowledge gap hypothesis presumes that you will know more about these topics than people whose educational level is lower than yours, even if the topics don’t directly concern your everyday life.
-Stated by Tichenor, Donohue and Olien in their 1970 article they said the population is divided into two distinct segments: a group of better educated people who know more about most things and those with low education who know less.
-Low Socio-economic status (SES) – are slightly defined by education level but also have little or no knowledge about Public affairs issues, are disconnected from news events and important new discoveries, and usually aren’t concerned about their lack of knowledge.
High Socio-Economic Status – Are the opposite of Low SES
- Public Affairs issues: -According to the knowledge gap theory most people gain knowledge as a topic becomes more heavily covered by the mass media, but the higher educated segment of the population will gain more knowledge.
Knowledge gap says nothing about the individuals innate intelligent, the theory is just saying that high-educated people have several advantages.
Such as:
1. a greater level of stored knowledge on a variety of topics.
2. Better attention, comprehension, retention, and greater communication skills.
3. More reliance on the information-oriented print media rather than the entertainment-oriented non-profit media
4. Greater numbers of relevant social contacts or friends who are likely to be knowledgeable about and discuss pubic affairs topics.
-Low SES can be called Media Poor
-High SES can be called Media Rich
-Programmatic Research- is research that builds on itself, where one study’s outcomes raise questions and other researchers take up the challenge to answer.
- 4 points that might reduce the knowledge gap 1. The type of issue, especially an issue that really gets people’s attention 2.the size and type of community – small,