What we do and don’t know: a meta-analysis of the knowledge gap hypothesis

This article provides a meta-analysis of the knowledge gap hypothesis literature published between 1966 and 2018. We find the basic assumption of a positive education-knowledge relationship to be supported. This result is robust across different geographical settings of the knowledge topics examined, independent of the country of data collection, and – in line with the belief gap hypothesis – restricted to (politically) uncontested topics. The central assumption of the hypothesis – that an increase of mass media information fosters knowledge divides between those with less and more formal education – was supported. While TV fulfils a role as a knowledge gap maintainer, print media and especially online media use appears to increase knowledge inequalities between groups with discrepant educational attainment.