ABSTRACT
The impact of online communication on recipients, political knowledge and the emergence of knowledge gaps between different segments of the society. The research has two different theoretical concepts that differ in understanding and conception of knowledge. The conception roots in political science and understands knowledge as "the range of factual information about politics is stored in long-term memory". It roots in cognitive psychology and understands knowledge as new information that "individuals actively collect, store, modify, interpret, and incorporate with what they know about the world". The chapter deals with small differences between the content of online and offline information sources. To systemize the literature, types of knowledge gaps: information supply-related knowledge gaps, information utilization-related knowledge gaps, and information reception-related knowledge gaps. This chapter discusses on people use offline information sources when informing political issues or use text-based online information and make use of the technical advantages of the Internet.
