Knowledge and the knowledge gap: Time to reconceptualize the “content”

Abstract

The knowledge gap perspective is a seminal theory of mass communication effects, one that bears wider consideration in the information sciences literature, particularly as converging voice, video and data channels continue to converge and deliver each other’s services. Although largely rooted in studies of traditional news media during the postmodern era, these gaps in audience information help define the digital divides accompanying the diffusion of new media channels. Given that over a hundred studies have investigated the knowledge gap—including several meta-analyses (e.g., Gaziano, 1996; Hwang & Jeong, 2009)--the present study provides further conceptual explication via a narrative review of the knowledge gap literature. Yet the knowledge gap may prove to be an important theory describing current phenomena if we apply it in an environment where media have been transformed dramatically, where individual choice and control have increased greatly, and generational differences have become more pronounced. After providing a taxonomy of the different contexts in which knowledge gaps can be explicated, the essay concludes with an argument for moving beyond the “relativistic” arguments and considering how the concepts and the theory may be useful in describing reality today.