MASS MEDIA FLOW AND DIFFERENTIAL GROWTH IN KNOWLEDGE

Abstract

Data from four types of research—news diffusion studies, time trends, a newspaper strike, and a field experiment—are consistent with the general hypothesis that increasing the flow of news on a topic leads to greater acquisition of knowledge about that topic among the more highly educated segments of society. Whether the resulting knowledge gap closes may depend partly on whether the stimulus intensity of mass media publicity is maintained at a high level, or is reduced or eliminated at a point when only the more active persons have gained that knowledge.