Mass Media and Biotechnology: Knowledge Gaps Within and Between European Countries

Over the past 30 years, many studies have documented the existence of knowledge gaps in a variety of public affairs and science topics and have tried to get a better understanding of how third factors mediate the development of knowledge gaps on the micro level. But there still is almost no comparative research on the macro level. The aim of this study is to analyze education and media based knowledge gaps in the field of biotechnology across 12 European countries and across time. Our data is based on two representative and comparative Eurobarometer surveys carried out in 1996 and 1999. The results reveal that education and media input are important factors operating not only on the individual level, but also on the country level