What we do and don’t know: a meta-analysis of the knowledge gap hypothesis

Autor(en)

Fabienne Lind, Hajo Boomgaarden

Abstrakt

This article provides a meta-analysis of the knowledge gap hypothesis literature published between 1966 and 2018. We find the basic assumption of a positive education-knowledge relationship to be supported. This result is robust across different geographical settings of the knowledge topics examined, independent of the country of data collection, and–in line with the belief gap hypothesis–restricted to (politically) uncontested topics. The central assumption of the hypothesis–that an increase of mass media information fosters knowledge divides between those with less and more formal education–was supported. While TV fulfils a role as a knowledge gap maintainer, print media and especially online media use appears to increase knowledge inequalities between groups with discrepant educational attainment.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft

Journal

Annals of the International Communication Association

Band

43

Seiten

210-224

Anzahl der Seiten

15

ISSN

2380-8985

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2019.1614475

Publikationsdatum

05-2019

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

508009 Medienforschung

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Communication

Link zum Portal

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/what-we-do-and-dont-know-a-metaanalysis-of-the-knowledge-gap-hypothesis(aed432d3-c7bb-4949-a449-229c7d05aafb).html