ABSTRACT
THE “knowledge-gap hypothesis” presented by Tichenor, Donohue, and Olien (1970) predicts that as mass media information is infused into a social system, members with more education acquire knowledge faster than do those with relatively less education. Consequently, the gap in knowledge between two social groups increases rather than decreases. They reasoned that since highly educated people are expected to have (1) better communication skills, such as well-developed reading and comprehension abilities; (2) more stored information; (3) increased relevant social contacts; and (4) better retention of information than the less educated, higher-SES members are more likely to gain knowledge faster than lower-SES members.
