Knowledge Gap Hypothesis
The Knowledge Gap Hypothesis explains that knowledge, like other forms of wealth, is often differentially distributed throughout a social system. Specifically, the hypothesis predicts that “as the infusion of mass media information into a social system increases, higher socioeconomic status segments tend to acquire this information faster than lower socioeconomic-status population segments so that the gap in knowledge between the two tends to increase rather than decrease” Phillip J. Tichenor, then Associate Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication, George A. Donohue, Professor of Sociology, and Clarice, N. Olien, Instructor in Sociology – three University of Minnesota researchers – first proposed the knowledge gap hypothesis in 1970.
Read more about Knowledge Gap Hypothesis: Foundations, Specification of The Knowledge Gap Hypothesis, A Formal Summary of The Knowledge Gap Hypothesis, Hypothesis Operationalization and Initial Support, Refining The Hypothesis, Narrative Review and Meta-Analytic Support, Criticism and Directions For Future Research, Competing Hypotheses
Famous quotes containing the words knowledge, gap and/or hypothesis:
“Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of the one whose knowledge is perfect, you whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind? Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a molten mirror?”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 37:16-18.
One of Job’s “comforters,” of God.
“the gap of today filling itself
as emptiness is distributed
in the idea of what time it is
when that time is already past”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast. It keeps him young.”
—Konrad Lorenz (1903–1989)