This paper assesses university students’ acquisition of simple and complex knowledge, in exploring whether the knowledge gap hypothesis (KGH) with its origins in community-based research into people’s informal learning from mass media, provides insights into students’ acquisition and retention of information. The KGH posits that attempts to equalise knowledge within a community by releasing new...

Despite the widespread utilization of the mass media in HIV/AIDS prevention, little is known about the knowledge gap that results from disparities in mass media use. This study examined the relationship between HIV/AIDS-related mass media use and HIV/AIDS-related knowledge among urban and rural residents of northwestern Ethiopia. A hierarchical regression analysis indicated that HIV/AIDS-relate...

The knowledge gap perspective is a seminal theory of mass communication effects, one that bears wider consideration in the information sciences literature, particularly as converging voice, video and data channels continue to converge and deliver each other’s services. Although largely rooted in studies of traditional news media during the postmodern era, these gaps in audience information help...