Knowledge gap

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 Telephone, Donahue and Alien 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 (SEES) – 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 SEES – 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 SEES can be called Medal Poor -High SEES can be called Media Rich Programmatic Research- is research that builds on itself, where one study outcomes raise questions and other researchers take up the challenge to answer. 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, rural, homogeneous areas have lower gaps; clues with pluralistic subcultures have higher gaps. 3. Owe much and what type of media coverage a topic gets – cigarettes link to cancer is constantly in the news (lower gaps); Sexual harassment incidents get intense but inconsistent coverage (Higher gaps) 4. An Issues level of conflict such as police brutality (lower gap) vs.. Covers about urban revitalization (higher gaps) – 3 early concepts explored 1 . Socio-economic deficits 2. Differences -sass’s – Interest in topics became the primary research. – Print Media is more informative than TV.

High SEES group still watches newscast -sass’s – focused on health, environment, and new technology. – Communication campaigns became designed to educated or persuade and television interest increased. Politics became a focus -Higher SEES use Schemata. Chapter 27 – principle of relative constancy -Charles Scripps – 1959 released economic report of media. -Macomb’s used the observations from Scripps to offer a theory called the Principle of Relative Constancy. Some of his predictions were: 1 . The proportion of money, viewed as a part of the gross national product(GNP), spent on the mass media remains fairly constant over time. The Constancy aspect. 2. Because the economy varies from boom to depression, the GNP also will vary. The relative part of the theory. 3. Because the expenditures on mass media are relatively constant, new media must fight it out with existing media. This is the functional equivalence part.

Chapter 28 – Cultivation -The media-culture connection got its first great push from the Payne Fund studies in the asses and asses, an investigation of the impact of movies on young people. Payne Fund Findings: -George Greener – Violence index -Grinner’s definition of violence – “the overt expression of physical force (with or thou a weapon, against self or others) compelling action against ones will on pain of being hurt and or killed or threatened to be so victimized as part of the plot. Cultivate -Two types of Cultivation -Mainstreaming – a relative commonalty of outlooks that television tends to cultivate – Resonance -suggest the power of television to influence popular imagery increases when seen on the screen “resonates” with the viewer – seems consistent with experience – it is more likely incorporated into the person’s notion of “reality’.