KNOWLEDGE GAP THEORY

A Written Report by
Hesham C. Idris
I. The Author/s

Phillip J. Tichenor
- P.J. Tichenor was an Associate Professor of Journalism and
Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.
He was born on the 31st of July 1931 was raised in Sparta,
Monroe, Wisconsin.
-He was able to work on three books, two historical fictions and a
biography. He is currently 89 years old and resides in Minnesota.

George A. Donohue

- He was born on 26th of October 1924 at Great Neck, New York and
passed away on May 7, 2016 at Saint Paul, Minnesota.

- George served in the Army Air Corps in WWII. A graduate of

Washington State University, Pullman, WA and a professor of
Sociology and Economics 40 years at the University of Minnesota.

Clarice N. Olien

- She was born on 1933 and grew up in Gravel Road, Friendship,

Yellow Medicine, Minnesota. Clarice was the youngest member of
their family.

- She became an instructor and professor of rural sociology and took

part in formulating the knowledge gap theory.

II. The Theory

A. Definition/Concept
- Knowledge gap theory suggests that segments of the population with higher
socioeconomic status tend to acquire information at a faster rate than the lower status
segments. As a result, the gap in knowledge between these segments tends to increase
rather than decrease and more educated people tend to be more interested in and open
minded about learning, further widening the gap.
 B. Brief History
Knowledge gap theory was first formally articulated in 1970. The three
researchers noted that this theory has been relevant throughout the mass
communication literature. The influence of individual characteristics on people's media
content preferences has been examined by a research published as early as the 1920s.
It was believed that the advent of radio might reduce the differences in preferred
contents. A notable research was made by Paul Lazarsfeld, the head of the Office of
Radio Research at Columbia University, who set out to examine the total amount of
time that people listened to radio and the type of content they listen correlated with their
socioeconomic status. Not only did Lazarsfeld's data indicate people of lower
socioeconomic status tended to listen to more radio programming, but also they were
less likely to listen to "serious" radio content. It was later then concluded that the
adoption of radio seems to have had little effect on a person’s tendency to prefer
specific types of content.
Further evidence supporting the knowledge gap hypothesis has been relevant in
Human history came from Star and Hughes in 1950.  Both of them analysed the efforts
to inform Cincinnati adults about United Nations. They found out that the campaign was
successful in reaching better-educated people, who were more interested in the topic,
and those with less education tends to ignore the campaign. Star and Hughes finally
suggested that knowledge, education, and interest may be interdependent.
C. Relevance to Mass Media and/or Mass Communication
In the beginning, information and knowledge usually spread unequally to all
groups within social systems. For this reason, the gap in knowledge can result in an
increased gap between people of lower and higher socioeconomic status. Mass media
might have the effect of increasing the difference gap between members of social
classes.
This also affects how much knowledge each members of social classes receive
and the type of information and content they are interested in. With the rise of different
forms of media through the use of advance technologies, it has further increased the
gap in knowledge among the social classes due to the fact that only a segment of
population with higher socioeconomic status are able acquire these devices.
A great depiction of this theory that involves the mass media was during the
dissemination of all possible information about the COVID-19. Majority of the population
who were able to instantly receive this knowledge were people from a higher
socioeconomic status. As a result, most of the people from this group were able to
protect themselves and follow all necessary guidelines. On the other hand, people from
lower social class received and comprehend the information at a much slower rate,
resulting to a disaster that could’ve been avoided. The time difference it took for these
two social classes to receive the information is significant.
 The Knowledge gap between the higher and lower social class will continuously
widen as more media information will always be received first by those people that
belong in a higher social class.
III. Conclusion
The Knowledge gap theory seems to be a fundamental explanation for the
apparent failure of mass publicity to inform the public at large. It became a gateway to
further understand how relevant knowledge gap is in mass media. The attempt to
improve people’s life with information via the mass media might not always work the
way it was planned and might have caused to further widen the gap.
Media presenting information should also realize that people of higher
socioeconomic status get their information in a different way than lower educated
people. Furthermore, this theory of the knowledge gap helped in understanding the
increased gap between people of higher socioeconomic status and people of lower
socioeconomic status and how different forms of media might affect their way of
receiving media information.