A principal consequence of mass media coverage about national public

affairs issues, particularly from print media, appears to be an increasing

"knowledge gap" between various social strata. Previous data presented by
the authors were concerned with issues largely external to the local
community. More recent work raises the question whether social conflict
about a community issue will tend to open the gap further, or close it.
Survey data from fifteen Minnesota communities experiencing conflicts of
varying magnitude indicate that as level of conflict about local issues
increases, the knowledge gap actually tends to decline. Level of
interpersonal communication about the issue appears to be a major
intervening variable. Thus, it appears that the knowledge gap hypothesis
needs to be modified according to the type of issue involved and the
conflict dimensions of the issue within the community.

MASS MEDIA AND THE

KNOWLEDGE GAP
A Hypothesis Reconsidered
G. A. DONOHUE, P. J. TICHENOR,
and C. N. OLIEN
University of Minnesota

A traditional viewpoint is that resolution of social prob-

lems is related to inputs of information. If a system is
sufficiently saturated with information, according to this
view, a general understanding of the topic will develop within
the system.
Behind this viewpoint are two assumptions. One is that
information itself contributes to problem resolution. A
second one-which is the focal point of this paper-is that
higher levels of information input lead to a general equaliza-
tion of knowledge throughout the system.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: This research is supported by projects 27-18 and

27-19, Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station-
COMMUNICATION RESEARCH, Vol. 2 No. 1, January 1975 .

[3]
[4] C

This second assumption, however, has been brought into

question by several studies in mass communication. Self-
exposure to information has frequently been found to be
related to level of education. Furthermore, data in recent
years indicate that the problem is not so much one of
increasing knowledge, but, frequently, one of relative depriva-
tion of knowledge. A gap in knowledge between segments
within a total system is entirely possible, and since social
power may be based on knowledge, relative deprivation of
knowledge may lead to relative deprivation of power (see
Tichenor, Donohue, and Olien, 1970; and for more recent
discussions see Rogers, 1974, and Katzman, 1973).
Specifically, several studies support the hypothesis that as
the flow of information into a social system increases,
segments of the population with higher levels of education
often tend to acquire this information at a faster rate than
segments with lower levels of education. As a result, gaps in
knowledge between these segments tend to increase rather
than decrease. Knowledge of space research is an example;
after several years of heavy media attention to space rocketry
and satellites, the gap in knowledge about that research
across educational status levels was greater than it had been
before the space research program began. Similarly, knowl-
edge gaps widened over time for the smoking and cancer
’

issue.
As earl ier statements of the knowledge gap hypothesis
indicate, one way to conceptualize distribution and acquisi-
tion of knowledge is to view these processes within a social
control framework. Within any total social system, some
subsystems have patterns of behavior and values conducive to
change, while others have patterns that are more resistant to
change. Therefore, these predisposed subsystems tend to
adopt and act upon information at a faster rate than more
stagnant subsystems.
These patterns of differential acquisition of information
have major consequences for maintenance of elite or special-
 [5]

ized groups within the social structure and therefore may be

viewed as social control through information control (Dono-
hue, Tichenor, and Olien, 1973). Reinforcing these patterns
are (a) mass media systems with characteristics (e.g.,
departmentalized newspapers, specialized magazines,
consumer education programs) which tend to produce
selective delivery of information to higher education
segments; (b) higher existing levels of communication skills
and knowledge among more highly educated segments, and
(c) higher levels of relevant interpersonal contact among
higher educational status segments.

A NEW LOOK AT THE KNOWLEDGE GAP

While extensive data on knowledge of national issues

support the knowledge gap hypothesis, the findings also raise
a question of major theoretical and social significance. Under
what conditions, if any, might this knowledge gap be reduced
or eliminated?
Recent theoretical and empirical studies have led to
consideration of social system variables that may affect either
the existence of knowledge gaps or their magnitude. The
purpose of this paper is to explore four of these variables,
primarily as they pertain to the knowledge gap phenomenon
in the community setting. These variables are:

(1) the nature of the issue, particularly the extent to which it

engages basic concerns in a social system;

(2) the level of system conflict accompanying the general social

definition of the issue in question;

(3) the structure of the community, particularly the extent to

which it is pluralistic or homogeneous;
(4) the pattern of media coverage, in terms of the extent to which
there is not only higher total frequency of message delivery, but
also a highe, level of repetiveness, or redundancy of principal
themes.
[6]

Data from a number of community studies in Minnesota,

collected since 1969, will be analyzed according to these four
independent variables, as they relate to the knowledge gap as
a dependent variable.

BASIC CONCERNS AND SOCIAL CONFLICT

If knowledge gaps widen as a result of increasing the flow

of information appealing to concerns of specialized groups,
then that tendency to widen shou Id be reduced to the extent
that information appeals to more basic concerns in a social
system. An example of a more basic social concern might be
the general attachment to a community, and to its survival
and maintenance.’ Such concerns could be aroused where
such issues as community modernization, urban renewal, or
environmental restrictions on local industry are concerned.
Arousal of basic concerns may be accompanied by varying
levels of conflict, which may be defined as tension arising
from awareness of differing public positions between groups,
either within the community or between communities.’
Social conflict is regarded here as a variable which, within
limits, may have positive functions for arousal and mainte-
nance of citizen participation. Conflict within a system or

subsystem about basic social concerns can lead to a revitali-

zation of old norms or emergence of new ones (Coser, 1967).
Conflict may be related to total communicative activity in
a number of ways, depending on the structure of the system

(Tichenor, Rodenkirchen, Olien, and Donohue, 1973b).

Under certain conditions the relationship between conflict
and the knowledge gap might be linear and positive, while
under other conditions it might be linear and negative or even
curvilinear. A point might be reached where conflict is so
intense and rancorous that conflict itself becomes the issue,
rather than the original topic. Communication itself, in such
cases, frequently shifts to interpersonal channels. A
controversy over a local health issue, for example, might
 [7]

become so explosive in a small community that formal

communication ceases and negotiations to resolve it may
continue on a personal, face-to-face basis. This point holds
whether the conflict is within the community or between
communities.
The point at which conflict produces a shift in communi-
cative strategies (or what is often called a &dquo;communication
breakdown&dquo;) is a matter for empirical determination. Up to
the point at which the breakdown occurs, to the extent that
conflict draws attention to basic social concerns it should
tend to direct attention to the issue throughout that com-
munity. The result is to overcome-at least partially-some of
the selective dissemination and selective self-exposure pat-
terns that contribute to knowledge-gap widening on topics of
specialized interest.
An illustration might be a community faced with pressure
from a state pollution control agency to restrict a local
industry’s release of pollutants in a way seen locally as
detrimental to the community as a whole. The resulting
tension would, theoretically, serve as a stimulant to com-
municative activity. This stimulant might be expected to
reduce the knowledge gap, at least to a lower magnitude than
it would reach if there were less conflict surrounding the
issue. Presence of conflict then, increases the probability that
the gap will be reduced, since there is likely to be a greater
arousal of widespread concern than might occur without
conflict.

COMMUNITY STRUCTURE: TRADITIONAL VS. PLURALISTIC

Community social structure, specifically the level of social

pluralism in a community, would seem to be directly relevant
to the knowledge gap hypothesis. A more &dquo;pluralistic&dquo;
community is more highly differentiated in terms of occupa-
tional status, employment base, governmental services, re-
ligion, and other social institutions. Size is ordinarily an
181

indicator; the larger and more urban a community, the more

pluralistic it is.
Since pluralism by definition involves differentiation and
specialization of roles and functions, one would expect that
the more pluralistic the community, the greater the possi-
bi I ities for widening the knowledge gaps between different
social strata within that community. A more pluralistic
community contains more sources of information, both
formal and informal, and requires more selective patterns of
self-exposure among its members. In a more homogeneous
community such as the small, traditional, rural service center,
there are fewer specialized media of communication and
more dependency upon common, informal, communication

patterns. There is, consequently, a greater likelihood that in

such a community, the &dquo;whole town will talk&dquo; about a topic
of basic concern. Such universal discussion would, theoreti-
cally, tend to equalize information flow across status lines
and narrow the knowledge gap.
Community structure and conflict are seen as interde-
pendent variables which may have joint effects on patterns of
acquisition of information. For example, in a single industry
town conflict about employment issues would be heightened
more rapidly than it would in a more diversified, pluralistic

city (Olien, Donohue, and Tichenor, 1968). I n the latter case

a level of depression leading to unemployment would
generally heighten such awareness.
REDUNDANCY IN MEDIA COVERAGE

If each message during a period of media publicity

introduces a new theme or idea, there would be, theoreti-
cally, a greater likelihood that those already informed about
the issue will be more likely to recognize, interpret, and
assimilate the new message. On the other hand, greater
repetition of a given theme would appear to increase the
probability that less active segments of the population will
eventually acquire that message. Therefore, one might expect
 [9]

publicity which is more highly redundant (repeats certain

themes more frequently during the period when it is

publicized) to produce more equal distribution of knowledge

across status levels. This pattern should hold in both high and
low conflict situations.

METHODS AND DATA SOURCES

The analysis to be presented here is based on data from

several studies conducted as part of a long-term program on
mass communication research at the University of Minnesota
(Donohue, Olien, and Tichenor, 1974; Tichenor, Olien, and
Donohue, 1973a). Most of the findings are from personal
interviews conducted in sixteen different Minnesota
communities since 1969. In eleven of these communities the
interviews centered around issues with environmental and
ecological implications-such as nuclear radiation from a
power plant, release of smoke from a steel plant, mining or
logging in a wilderness area, pollution of rivers or lakes, and
sewage control. In the remaining four communities, the issue
is political regionalization, which may be regarded as a
political innovation at the time of the studies.
A major study criterion for selecting a community was the
fact that the issue had been subjected to both local and
regional mass media publicity. Issues were also selected to
involve social conflict of varying levels.
While topics varied, issues in different communities had
important features in common. Each issue had direct
implications for at least one community under study. Also,
each issue had arisen at least partly as a resu It of outside
agency pressure, state or federal, and involved public deci-
sions which would be considered or made to resolve the issue.
Adults 21 and over were selected by probability sampling
methods in each community area and were interviewed in
their homes by local persons trained for this project.
[10]

Knowledge in each community was measured through a

two-part, open-ended item. An example: &dquo;Have you read or
heard anything in recent months about a taconite plant in
Si Iver Bay?&dquo; I f the respondent answered &dquo;yes,&dquo; the next
question was &dquo;Can you recall the most important thing you
have heard about it?&dquo; One additional probe was used with
this item. Knowledge level is then determined according to
the number of accurate statements which the respondent
makes. Accuracy of respondent recall is based on judgments
by persons who are experts on the particular topic of study.
Level of conflict is defined operationally as the extent to
which respondents perceive the issue as containing tension.
The measure is based on a single question, for example:
&dquo;Would you say the question of the taconite plant is a
touchy subject around here, or not?&dquo; The proportion saying
&dquo;yes&dquo; is taken as an indicator of level of perceived conflict in
the community. As a partial validity check, the open-ended
knowledge responses were examined to determine whether
any type of conflict among persons or groups was mentioned.
The Spearman rank correlation between community scores
on the open-ended conflict responses and community scores
on the &dquo;touchy subject&dquo; responses is .65 (p < .01).

Community size is used as a structural indicator of

pluralism, or heterogeneity. The communities vary in size
from under 1,000 to over 100,000.
Level of education is used in these studies as an indicator
of socioeconomic status. The specific measure is the number
of years of formal schooling which have been completed by
each individual. The knowledge gap for a given community is
measured in one of two ways, depending upon the character-
istics of the data. One measure is the Pearsonian correlation
coefficient between level of education and level of knowledge
about an issue. Another, in cases where knowledge distribu-
tions are highly skewed, is the differences, in proportion
having a certain level of knowledge, between the college-
educated group and those with less than college education.
 [11]

Mass media coverage, for each issue, is estimated by a

newspaper coverage index, based on a total of all news
articles about a topic appearing in newspapers during the six
months preceding a survey. The number of articles about an
issue in a given newspaper is multiplied by the proportion of
sample persons who report reading the newspaper in which
the article appeared.

FINDINGS ON NONLOCAL ISSUES

According to the hypothesis, increasing information flow

should be positively related to increasing knowledge gaps on
issues which are nonlocal and do not arouse basic social
concerns. In four of the communities studied a national issue
had been in the news during the three months preceding the
interviews. The issue was nutritive value of the breakfast
cereals; the news had been directed almost entirely toward
Congressional hearings and the breakfast food industry in
general. There was virtually no implication for any individual
community as such.
Data on the breakfast food issue support the basic
knowledge gap hypothesis as originally stated (Figure 1). As
newspaper attention to this issue increases, so does the
magnitude of the positive correlation between education and
knowledge. Differences in correlations are marked, ranging
from a low of .05 in Worthington where the topic received
the least coverage, to .51 in Marshall, where it received nearly
three times as much coverage. As the population data in
Figure 1 indicate, these four communities are very similar in
size (between 8,300 and 9,900), and all are agricultural trade
centers with similar characteristics, thus controlling pluralism
in this particular case. These findings, then, lend further
support to the proposition that on national issues that do not
involve immediate consequences for communities, increasing
media coverage leads to greater differentials in knowledge
across educational status groups.
[12]

Figure 1: NEWSPAPER COVERAGE INDEX AND STRENGTH OF CORRE-

LATIONS BETWEEN EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE
BREAKFAST CEREAL ISSUE IN FOUR COMMUNITIES

CONFLICT, LOCAL ISSUES, AND THE KNOWLEDGE GAP

If data national issues support the basic knowledge gap

on

hypothesis, what about knowledge on local issues? Results of

analyses of local issues portray a quite different pattern of
relationship. For the sixteen Minnesota communities as a
whole, the size of the knowledge gap was only weakly related
to the newspaper coverage index and in a negative direction.
The rank correlation between th. se two variables for the
sixteen communities is -.29 (n.s.). That is, there is a slight
tendency for the knowledge gap between social status
 [13]

segments to be narrower where there is heavier media input.

These findings suggest that the original hypothesis, however
well supported by previous data, may not hold for all
situations. Under what conditions might the knowledge gap
be lower in magnitude?
Among the variables that might contribute to a lower
knowledge gap may be level of conflict. The relationship
between perceived conflict and the magnitude of the knowl-
edge gap is indicated by data in Figure 2. The correlation
coefficients between education and knowledge tend to be of
a higher magnitude in communities where the issues are
associated with low perceived confl ict. Among the six
&dquo;low-perceived-conflict&dquo; communities, four have knowledge
gap coefficients above .26; for the six &dquo;h igh-perceived-
conflict&dquo; communities, four have knowledge gap coefficients
below .14. The rank correlation between the conflict measure
and the knowledge gap coefficient for the twelve com-
munities and issues is -.72 (p < .01).
Data in Figure 2 reflect the importance of both the
conflict dimension and the extent to which the issue arouses
basic concerns. The knowledge gap has the greatest magni-
tude on the regional development issue, an issue of low
general concern, in two similar communities of northwestern
Minnesota. This issue arose with the 1969 Minnesota Re-
gional Planning Act, which laid the ground work for
establishing regional development areas. Less than a year
before the survey was conducted, the state governor deline-
ated the boundaries of eleven such regions in Minnesota.
Formation of regional development commissions was to be
accomplished voluntarily at the local level. The issue had
received some publicity-at a level about average for the
various issues in the study as a whole. Regional development,
however, had not been viewed as a major issue by the
population as a whole; in none of the four communities
where it was studied did more than 17% view it as &dquo;very
important.&dquo;
[14]

Figure 2: LEVEL OF PERCEIVED CONFLICT IN COMMUNITIES AND SIZE

OF KNOWLEDGE GAP (correlation between education and knowledge)
ON 12 COMMUNITY ISSUES

I n G lenwood respondents were asked about a nuclear

power plant which had once been the center of a statewide
controversy over safety standards. However, only a fourth of
the Glenwood respondents regarded it as &dquo;very important&dquo;; it
was a low conflict issue, and the knowledge gap on that issue
is relatively high.
More critical in Glenwood is the issue of mercury pollution
of Lake Minnewaska, a popular resort area adjoining the
town. This lake has been put on a &dquo;mercury danger list&dquo; by a
heavily publicized state-federal report several months before
the study. A local weekly newspaper editorialty claimed that
the community had been treated unfairly in the report and
stood to lose part of its resort business as a result.
Glenwood’s mercury crisis is an almost classical example of
informational consequences of an issue embodying a threat
 [15]

to the entire local economic and social fabric. More than 98%
in Glenwood knew about the issue-more than for any other
single issue in all communities. &dquo;The whole town talked&dquo;
about the issue and information distribution across educa-
tional levels was highly uniform; the knowledge gap correla-
tion is only .04.
A similar high conflict issue, with a resulting low knowl-
edge gap, is in Cosmos, where there had been a history of
problems with sewage disposal and a bitter local dispute over
how to finance a new disposal plant.
Except for Glenwood, the mercury issue was relatively
remote and therefore generated low conflict. Sewage issues,
however, tend to be associated with higher conflict and lower
resu Itant knowledge gaps.

COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND THE KNOWLEDGE GAP

One would expect, theoretically, a greater tendency for

knowledge gaps to appear in more pluralistic communities
than in more homogeneous ones. There are few opportunities
to test this hypothesis directly, in view of the relative scarcity
of community-level data on similar or identical issues.
However, one set of data from the Minnesota community
studies provides for at least a partial test of the effect of
community structure on the conflict dimensions of the
issues, and therefore, on the magnitude of the knowledge
gap. These are data from two points in time in four different
communities-Ely, Silver Bay, Grand Rapids, and Duluth, all
in northeastern Minnesota. I n 1970 and again in 1972 in
these communities, surveys were made to measure knowledge
level on three issues-the question of whether to mine in a
federally designated wilderness area near Ely, the question of
whether to place environmental restrictions on a taconite
plant at Silver Bay, and the question of air pollution and
closing of a steel plant at Duluth.
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[16]
 [17]

Exploration for mining near Ely, and potential environ-

mental consequences, had received heavy publicity shortly
before the 1970 studies, but by 1972 the issue had shifted
largely to the question of log harvesting in the same area. The
original, specific question of mining in the wilderness area
was before the courts and receiving relatively little media
attention in 1972. _

The steel plant in Duluth had been the city’s largest

employer until the late 1960s, although there had been
frequent local discussion about its possible closing because of
its growing obsolescence. Shortly before the 1970 study, the
question of air pollution from the plant had been raised.
Legislation to provide tax concessions for modernization of
the plant was considered but rejected in 1971, and by 1972
when the second study was conducted, the plant had shut
down its major operations and had laid off more than half its
work force.
At Silver Bay one of the most widely and continuously
publicized environmental issues in the Midwest concerns a
taconite plant, and the question of whether &dquo;tailings&dquo;-
residue left when taconite is produced from low grade
ore-should continue to be released into Lake Superior. The
plant employs about three-fourths of all working adults in
Silver Bay, and some taconite workers commute to the plant
from Ely, nearly forty miles away. The taconite issue
remained highly controversial throughout the two-year pe-
riod between studies. By the time of the 1972 survey the
issue had been in court once and another trial was pending.
The issue has significance for the entire mining industry, but
is more specifically relevant to Silver Bay itself.
With the decline in media attention to the mining and steel
plant issues the level of current knowledge of all three issues
generally declined in the four communities between the first
and second surveys (Table 1). The only exceptions are the
steel issue in Grand Rapids, where familiarity was lowest
among the four communities in 1970, and Silver Bay, where
there was a slight increase in knowledge about the mining
[18]

issue and continuing high familiarity with the locally volatile

taconite question. On each question familiarity tends to be
highest in both years in the community where the issue has
the most local significance. Knowledge on all issues tends to
be lowest in both years in Grand Rapids, which is separated
geographically from the site of the three issues, although it is
in the same general &dquo;iron range&dquo; area of the state. It was
included in the study for comparison purposes.
The two-year data from these communities allow for
inspection of data relevant to three aspects of the knowledge
gap hypothesis. One is the community structure question:
given that Duluth is the most clearly pluralistic community,
will the knowledge gap on nonlocal issues be greater than in
the less pluralistic communities? A second is the question of
local impact: will the knowledge gap be lower in a given issue
in the community where that issue has the most immediate
local impact? The third question concerns the general decline
in publicity on two of the issues and the dropoff in
familiarity (with the noted exceptions) on all three: as public
attention to an issue declines, will there be a corresponding
drop in the knowledge gap in cases where such gaps existed
initially?
Methodological considerations lead to a different way of
presenting knowledge gap data for this phase of the analysis.
The high proportions having no knowledge of the issues in
1972 produced highly skewed distributions on this dimension
which fail to meet the normality assumptions of Pearsonian
correlation. Therefore, the data are presented in terms of the
difference between proportion having any accurate knowl-
edge between the high school and grade-school groups
combined and the college-educated group. The findings are in
Table 2.
First, the data in Table 2 are generally consistent with the
expectation concerning community pluralism. On the two
nonlocal issues in Duluth (mining and taconite) the 1970
gaps were greater than in any one of the other three
communities at a time when the issues were most salient.
 [19]

TABLE 2
Knowledge Differentials Between College-Educated and High School
or Grade School-Educated Segments, by Community, Topic and Year

NOTE: Boxes refer to the community in which that issue had the most immediate
local significance, in the sense that the question of mining pertained to an area
near Ely, the taconite plant is at Silver Bay, and the steel plant was in Duluth
itself. While differing measures of perceived importance were used in these
studies, such perceptions in general corresponded with level of perceived conflict
(see Tichenor, Rodenkirchen, Olien, and Donohue, 1973b).
a. The knowledge measure used in computing these differentials is based upon the
proportion in the community sample having any accurate knowledge about
current aspects of the issue. The figures in the table reflect the differential, in
percentage points, between the college group and the high school and
grade-school combined. Thus, a +5 on the mining issue in Ely in 1970 indicates
that the college group was 5 percentage points higher in having any accurate
knowledge on that issue than the group with less education.

Also, onthe local issue, the 1970 knowledge gap in Duluth

was greater than the corresponding gap for either of the
smaller, more homogeneous communities. That is, the gap for
steel knowledge in Duluth during 1970 was greater than the
gap for taconite in Silver Bay or for mining in Ely. In spite of
the fact that the steel plant issue was subjected to heavy
publicity in both Duluth newspapers and in other media in
the state, and had reached high conflict proportions, there
was still a fifteen percentage-point differential between the
two segments of the population. The pluralistic nature of this
metropolitan community, with its greater diversity of social
concerns and economic support, seems to be a major factor.
On the second question, these data suggest even more
directly than those above that an issue with sharp local
impact-presumably arousing general concern about com-
munity survival and maintenance-is likely to be accom-
panied by more equal distribution of knowledge. In Ely in
[20]

1970, for example, the gap was low (5 points) for the local
mining issue and 18 and 25 points, respectively, for the
taconite and steel issues. In Silver Bay the knowledge gap for
the taconite issue was zero in 1970, whereas gaps did appear
for each of the other two issues.
In Grand Rapids the 1970 pattern is consistent with the
nature of the community. Grand Rapids, while more diversi-
fied than Ely, nevertheless is also a recreation area, and the
potential impact of mining on tourism related more directly
to Grand Rapids’ concerns than would be true for either
taconite or steel; well under 20% of the Grand Rapids
repondents reported occupations related in any way tQ steel
or taconite production, lowest of all four communities.
Therefore, the lower knowledge gap in Grand Rapids on the
mining issue in 1970, compared with the greater gaps on the
other two issues, is consistent with general social and
economic structure of that community.
Changes in the magnitude of the gaps from 1970 to 1972
are consistent with the basic knowledge gap hypothesis.
Where gaps do exist as a result of media attention and other
factors, a decline in attention to the issues from mass media
and other social institutions will lead to a reduction of the
gap as knowledge itself declines. There are only two cases in
Table 2 where gaps, if relatively high initially, did not decline
in 1972. One is on the steel issue in Silver Bay, where the
increase is negligible. The other is the taconite issue in Ely. It
should be pointed out that, with the continuing legal battle
over the taconite plant, this issue remained in the news to a
much greater extent than the other two issues did. Another
special factor in Ely is that, during the months preceding the
1972 study, a second weekly newspaper began publication in
the community in direct competition with an established
one. This newspaper immediately gave heavy attention to
both the mining and taconite issues, and its initial efforts to
gain circulation may well have contributed to differential
distribution of knowledge, assuming a possible tendency for a
 [21]

new print medium to be acquired first by more highly

educated segments.

CONTENT REDUNDANCY

One hypothesis under study was that greater repetition by

mass media of certain themes would be negatively related to
the magnitude of the knowledge gap. This hypothesis was not
generally supported by the data, either for repetition by local
media, by regional or statewide media, or both. There was a
tendency for high repetition to be accompanied by lower
gaps in situations where there is less community conflict,
whereas in high conflict situations, the reverse tended to
occur. In neither case were the patterns marked enough to
meet conventionally accepted levels of statistical significance.
The conflict nature of the issue, its immediate relevance to
the community, and the nature of the community appear to
be more fundamental factors.

CONCLUSION

Recent theoretical and empirical studies have provided

support for several modifications of the general knowledge
gap hypothesis:

( 1 ) Where the issue appears to arouse general concern for a

community as a whole, knowledge about that issue is more
likely to become evenly distributed across educational status
levels.
(2) This equalization is more likely to occur when the issue develops
in a climate of social conflict.

(3) Such equalization in knowledge is more likely to occur in a

small, homogeneous community than in a large, pluralistic one.
(4) Knowledge gaps on specific issues, if they appear initially, may
tend to decline as public attention wanes.
[22]

This research has been focused deliberately on local crisis

situations, which may reflect a minority of the public affairs
topics which are being communicated regularly within a
community. If conflict arousal is a major factor in equalizing
information distribution, it may well be limited by the
system’s capacity to accommodate conflict. As other analyses
indicate, the general tendency in the smaller, more homoge-
neous community is to avoid conflict to the extent possible
in the interests of community maintenance (Olien, Donohue,
and Tichenor, 1968). In larger systems conflict appears as a
requirement for feedback within the system (Donohue,
Tichenor, and Olien, 1973). Since greater differentiation
itself tends to lead to more differential acquisition of
knowledge, conflict in such systems may become crucial in
determining or limiting the magnitude of that differential.
A fundamental variable here is the extent to which the
issue arouses basic social concerns. Methodologically, this
paper is confined to situations where such presumed concerns
relate to community of residence and/or employment. A
major question for further research is whether arousal of
more individualistic concerns in society will lead to similar
levels of conflict and equalization of information, or whether
such consequences are limited to cases where the concerns
themselves relate directly to social structure.

NOTES

1. Pride in the local community is frequently evenly distributed across

socioeconomic segments (see Minneapolis Star Metro Poll, 1967).
2. The systems approach is a generalized analytical framework, and as such, is
an abstraction. Identification of specific systems and subsystems depends upon

the level of abstraction being applied in a given empirical setting. For example, a
subsystem in a particular analysis might bean interest group in a community

which is seen aspart of a total system. In another analysis, a town might be

viewed as a subsystem of a county or state; in still other cases, counties or states
might be defined as subsystems of a total national system.
 [23]

REFERENCES

COSER, L. A. (1967) Continuities in the Study of Social Conflict. New York:

Free Press.
DONOHUE, G. A., C. N. OLIEN, and P. J. TICHENOR (1974) "Communities,
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ROGERS, E. M. (1974) "Social structure and communication strategies in rural
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TICHENOR, P. J., G. A. DONOHUE, and C. N. OLIEN (1970) "Mass media flow
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TICHENOR, P. J., J. M. RODENKIRCHEN, C. N. OLIEN, and G. A. DONOHUE
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George A. Donohue is Professor of Sociology at the University of Minnesota. His

areas of specialization include social theory, socioeconomic development, and
community organization.

Phillip J. Tichenor is Professor of Joumalism and Mass Communication at the

University of Minnesota. His interests include mass communication theory and
methodology, mass media and public opinion, and science journalism.

Clarice N. Olien is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of

Minnesota. Her research specialties include community organization, youth
development and mass communication.