KNOWLEDGE GAP THEORYLaura Gorham, Baobao Song and Chao Zhao

DEFINITION

Also called the Knowledge Gap Hypothesis “As the infusion of mass media information

into a social system increases, segments of the population with higher socio-economic status tend to acquire this information at a faster rate than the lower status segments, so that the gap in knowledge between these two segments tend to increase rather than decrease”. (Tichenor, Donohue, and Olien, 1970)

Source: Tichenor, Donohue and Olien, 1970

MATTHEW EFFECT

“The rich get richer and the poor get poorer” Refer to issues of fame, status, or wealth

MATTHEW EFFECT (EDUCATION)

Described by Keith Stanovich in 1986 Early success in acquiring reading skills

usually leads to later successes in reading as the learner grows, children who fall behind in reading would read less and learn less, increasing the gap between them and their peers.

The “knowledge gap” hypothesis thus seems to suggest itself as a fundamental explanation for the apparent failure of mass publicity to inform the public at large. (Tichenor, Donohue, and Olien, 1970)

HISTORY

1929 Gray, W.S.;

Munroe, R. 1970

Tichenor, P. J., Donohue, G. A., & Olien, C. N.

First formal study

Philip J. Tichenor

George A. Donohue

Clarice N. Olien

HISTORY

Tichenor, Donohue & Olien, 1990 University of Minnesota

REFINING THE HYPOTHESIS

Will the Knowledge Gap Be Attenuated? Level of basic social concern aroused by

the issue Level of social conflict surrounding the

issue Level of homogeneity of the community

HOW DOES THE KNOWLEDGE GAP WORK?

Individual National Global

INDIVIDUAL SCALE

Socioeconomic status (SES) An individual's or group's position withi

n a hierarchical social structure.  Education, occupation, income, wealth,

and place of residence

INDIVIDUAL SCALE

Five reasons why the knowledge gap exists Communication skills Stored information Relevant social contact Selective exposure *Media target markets

• Tichenor, P.J., Donohue, G.A. and Olien, C.N. (1970). Mass Media Flow and Differential Growth in Knowledge, Public Opinion Quarterly 34: Colombia University Press.

NATIONAL SCALE

Economic system Political system Education system Law system (Patent law)

Digital Divide

Individuals (Knowledge

Gap)

GLOBAL SCALE North-South Divide

GLOBAL SCALE

Indicator1: Researchers in R & D (per million people) R=Research D=Development

(World Development Report by the World Bank)

Professionals engaged in the conception or creation of new knowledge, products, processes, methods, or systems and in the management of the projects concerned.

Country Researchers in R & D (per million people) GDP (per capita)

United States 4673.00 43800

Japan 5408.91 33100

Germany 3524.79 31900

Average of North (N) 4535.57 36267

China 1077.11 7800

Brazil 657.97 8800

Mexico 347.28 10700

Thailand 315.53 9200

Average of South (S) 599.47 9125

Ratio (N/S) 7.57 3.97

Source: World Development Report by the World Bank & CIA World Factbook 2007

GLOBAL SCALE

Indicator2: Patent (per million people) (World Development Report)

Country Overall PatentPopulation

(million, mid-2007)

Patent (per million people)

United States 241,347.00 302.2 798.63

Japan 333,498.00 127.7 2611.57

Germany 47,853.00 82.3 581.45

Average of North (N) 207566.00 170.7 1330.55

　 　China 153,060.00 1318 116.13

Brazil 4,023.00 189.3 21.25

Mexico 629.00 106.5 5.91

Thailand 945.00 65.7 14.38

Average of South (S) 39,664.25 419.9 39.42

Ratio (N/S) 5.23 0.41 33.75

Source: World Development Report & 2007 World Population Data Sheet

GLOBAL SCALE

North-South Divide People in the south want to move to the

north Immigrants (Canadian History Knowledge Ga

p)

THE APPLICATION OF THE KNOWLEDGE GAP HYPOTHESIS

• Print Media• Television• Online Media

PRINT MEDIA

Print media is intended for the higher educated Have a higher degree of knowledge on various

subjects Already information rich

Higher Reading Comprehensions and Vocabularies

Newspapers can reduce the knowledge gap by making article contents easier to comprehend and retain by the less educated

PRINT MEDIA

Dependent upon how long and what is covered by the newspaper team Readers become more aware of the topic if the

newspaper covers an issue for a longer period of time

PRINT MEDIA

Status differences among newspapers Information presented will be more well known if

the newspaper is more established More people read a more established newspaper May be more credible

TELEVISION

TV is known as the Knowledge Leveler Less educated are tend to be dependent on

Television Information is presented for all to understand

Most people have a TV News becomes more accessible for all education

levels and social resources to get information

ONLINE MEDIA AND THE INTERNET

Internet produces a new structure of the news:

Print media traditionally shows more important information based on: Article Placement Headline Size Size and Number of Photos

Online Structure has a different format Shows a change in how people may interpret the

information Shows most popular

FORMAT OF ONLINE MEDIA

Articles Tend to be uploaded in menu format Frequent online updates make it impractical to

arrange news by order of importance

ONLINE MEDIA EFFECT

More user control Pace, sequence, how much, and the range of

exposed media is done by the user not by the media

User is presented all of the information but may not choose to view all the information

INTERNET AND OTHER MEDIA FORMS

Internet use can bring together different types of media

Brings together Television and Social Media This years media: People on Facebook, Twitter,

etc discussing debate Ads to watch the debate on blogs Shows people what is going on even if they are

not watching Creates conversational like dialogue and

elaborating on the message

INTERNET AND OTHER MEDIA FORMS

Shows the impact the internet has had on how people reinforce the knowledge that they gain

People use the internet to find further knowledge about what they saw on TV

INTERNET

Internet produces information but not all of the information is found by the user User has to put forth their own effort to find the

information Information may not be structured by

journalists Hard to find what is credible and what is not

credible

THE INTERNET REINFORCES THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

Internet requires a much more skilled user Requires skills to navigate through the computer

and the internet Must understand the difference between credible

and non credible sources

THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

What is the digital divide? The digital divide is the gap between people with

access to digital information technology, and those that have limited access to digital information technology

Gap can be found between individuals, communities, and countries

The digital divide causes an increased knowledge gap. People who lack access to the internet will not be

receiving the information provided by the internet People who have internet learn how to interpret and

understand information the information presented

BENEFITS OF BRIDGING KNOWLEDGE GAP

Actual social institutions are in action: Bridging knowledge gap in different fields for societal well-being

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA) initiative

37 world leading science publishers 69 low income countries + 37 low-middle

income countries 850 institutions 900 journals in the areas of agriculture and

related subjects

BENEFITS OF BRIDGING KNOWLEDGE GAP

In business sectors, various industries are bridging their own knowledge gap.

Real estate industry - knowledge gap on sustainability

Solutions:

(Wallbank, C., & Price, B., 2007)

Designer

Constructor

Operator

MIND THE KNOWLEDGE GAP

Is Knowledge Gap always a “bad” thing?

Taking advantage of knowledge gap:E.g. Advertising

HOW TO BRIDGE KNOWLEDGE GAP Interpersonal communication PIES module

physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual capacity of individual thinking system.

Four steps to bridge knowledge gap Step 1: recognize physical knowledge gap Step 2: recognize intellectual knowledge gap Step 3: recognize emotional knowledge gap Step 4: recognize spiritual knowledge gap

Fazrul Ismail

STEP 1: PHYSICAL KNOWLEDGE GAP

STEP 2: INTELLECTUAL KNOWLEDGE GAP

Assessing background knowledge, start an intellectual conversation based on basic level of knowledge.

STEP 3: EMOTIONAL KNOWLEDGE GAP

EMPATHY Introduce and build up the emotional

experience

STEP 4: SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE GAP Related to belief or value system that embedded

within oneself, and is hardest to reach. This is a crucial step that takes bridging the gap on

the level of “awareness” into the next level of “action.”

Who wants to try????

HOW TO BRIDGE KNOWLEDGE GAP

Large scope communication Mass Media

Bridging Widening

HOW TO BRIDGE KNOWLEDGE GAP

Mass media: bridging knowledge gap Change the distribution of knowledge

New information and communication technology (ICT) : widening knowledge gap and digital divide

HOW TO BRIDGE KNOWLEDGE GAP

“Access Rainbow” (Clement & Shade, 1996)

HOW TO BRIDGE KNOWLEDGE GAP

Carriage facilities carriage media that store, serve and carry information telephone network, television network…… Devices Actual physical devices that people operate Telephone terminal, television, printer, scanner…… Software tools programme that operates the devices and makes

connections to services. affordable, multilingual, privacy enhancing and easy

to use.

HOW TO BRIDGE KNOWLEDGE GAP

Content/service Actual information and communication services that

people find useful. Core level in the rainbow Service/access provision service providers AT&T, Cox, libraries, schools, community

organizations, workplaces and other publicly accessible facilities……

Literacy/social facilitation supportive learning environment a social process combing both formal and informal

methods

HOW TO BRIDGE KNOWLEDGE GAP

Government/policy democratic process that allows people to have

access to basic information and participate in public policy making with ICTs playing a vital role in information processing and dissemination.

REFERENCES – SECTION III

ABC News. (October 12. 2012). Vice Presidential Debate 2012: America's Social Media Reaction to [Video File]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2LLCNukikU.

Bennett, G., & Jessani, N. (2011). The knowledge translation toolkit: Bridging the know-do gap : a resource for researchers. New Delhi, India: Sage Publications.

Drewdigs. [November 7, 2007]. The Digital Divide [Video File]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcboST0evqE&feature=related.

Donohue, G. A., Tichenor, P. J., & Olien, C.N. (1975). Mass media and the knowledge gap: A hypothesis reconsidered. Communication Research, 2 (1): 3–23.

FAONewsroom. (2006). The power of information: Closing the knowledge gap. Retrieved, Nov. 2, at http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000406/index.html

Fraile, M. (2011). Widening or reducing the knowledge gap? testing the media effects on political knowledge in spain (2004-2006). The International Journal of Press/Politics, 16(2), 163-184. doi: 10.1177/1940161210388413

Gaziano, Cecilie (1983).  The Knowledge Gap:  An Analytical Review of Media effects. Minnesota:  Sage Publications

Ismail, F. (2008). Four steps to bridge knowledge gap using PIES model. Retrieved, Nov. 2, at http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000406/index.html

Ligge1. (February 23, 2012). The Digital Divide in Education [Video File] Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1YLPL0KOWE.

Oluyinka Oludolapo, O. (2010). Bridging the digital divide and the impact of new media technologies on development in South Africa. In Safeeullah, S. (Ed.), New Achievements in Technology Education and Development. Pp. 373-388. Retrieved, Nov. 2, at http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/10526/InTech-Bridging_the_digital_divide_and_the_impact_of_new_media_technologies_on_development_in_south_africa.pdf

Stanovich, Keith E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21 (4), 360–407.

Tichenor, P. J., Donohue, G. A., & Olien, C. N. (1970). Mass media flow and differential growth in knowledge, Public Opinion Quarterly, 34: Colombia University Press.

Walbank, C., & Price, B. (2007). Sustainability: Bridging the knowledge gap. Retrieved, Nov. 2, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR48Zb9mvFE.

QUESTIONS?