What makes a knowledge gap?

‘A knowledge gap occurs when one group knows more about what’s going on in society than another’, communication scholar Mark Boukes explains. ‘This can make it difficult to debate the issues. Another risk is that people who know less about current affairs vote for political parties that may not have their best interests at heart. That’s why, in an ideal world, this gap shouldn’t exist.’

Together with his team, Boukes explored whether social media are capable of bridging the knowledge gap. Can people use social media to find out more about current affairs, thereby narrowing the gap between groups? Or do social media make the knowledge gap even wider?

Finding out what people know

To answer this research question, Boukes and his team conducted a number of panel surveys a few years ago. ‘The surveys involved asking the same group of people to complete a questionnaire at regular intervals about their social media use and how much they knew about a number of current affairs. This gave us an insight into their media consumption over a longer period of time and their knowledge about issues in the news.’

Boukes is convinced that questioning people about current affairs is the only way to assess the knowledge that people acquire through their social media use. ‘You might ask questions about politics in general, like the name of a certain minister or how many seats there are in the House of Representatives, but there are other ways of finding out about this. At school, for example.’

Boukes related the answers that people gave to not only their media use, but also their levels of education and interest in politics. ‘The knowledge gap already begins at school. Clearly, people who’ve been educated to a higher level will have had more time to learn things, and people with an interest in politics are more likely to follow the news more closely.’

Twitter has a positive, Facebook a negative effect

Boukes’ research uncovered key differences between the various social media. ‘It’s a common misconception that social media have an effect on knowledge levels in society that is either completely positive or completely negative. By contrast, we found that things aren’t as black and white as that.’ It turned out that Twitter had a positive effect on people’s knowledge levels. ‘That’s because it’s characterised by lively discussions about the news and the noticeable presence of the news media.’ Facebook, on the other hand, had a negative effect. ‘People who spent more time on Facebook learnt less about the news. It follows that considerable Facebook use may be a factor in widening the knowledge gap.’

Moreover, this effect was found to be most pronounced among people with little interest in politics. ‘That makes sense in a way, because you’re free to choose what or who to follow, and those with little interest in politics scroll through news items faster than those with plenty of interest.’ Boukes also referred to a German study in which participants felt that they had consumed news, even though they had merely scrolled through news items on Facebook and therefore only skimmed them. ‘In fact, they hadn’t consumed these news items at all.’

Television increases knowledge of people with a lower level of education

Alongside the effect of social media on the knowledge gap, Boukes also looked at the role of traditional media, such as newspapers and television. ‘Television has a particularly positive effect on the knowledge of people with a lower level of education’, Boukes claims. ‘Traditional media, like television, are educational for everyone who consumes them. Furthermore, news on television is often easier to follow than, say, an article in a newspaper’, he explains.

He finds it notable that the NOS and RTL news bulletins are still guaranteed to be among the top five or 10 most watched programmes every day. Boukes hopes for an alternative that is equally capable of reaching younger audiences, who watch television increasingly less often. ‘High-quality journalism and social media aren’t mutually exclusive.’

Do people still trust the news?

The consumption of fact-based news is vital to reducing the knowledge gap. Boukes is now investigating the phase immediately prior to news consumption, which includes factors like trust in news media. ‘How can we shore up this trust and at the same time increase people’s willingness to pay for high-quality news? This is essential if we want journalists to remain critical and independent from politics and advertisers, so that they can continue to provide us with high-quality news.’