| dc.description.abstract | The public has gradually become more dependent on the mass media for their political
information as alternative channels of political communication have been marginalized.
Political knowledge is not equally distributed, and according to the knowledge gap hypoth
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esis, the gap between the most and least knowledgeable is likely to widen due to the pattern
of media consumption, the different content of printed media and TV, and the abilities of
the audience as linked to educational differences. Most of the empirical research on the
knowledge gap hypothesis has been done in the USA, a media system very different from
those of the Nordic countries. The strong tradition of PB TV and the high rate of newspaper
consumption make the Norwegian media environment favourable for political knowledge
gain, but it may, for the very same reasons, lead to a widening knowledge gap, according
to the knowledge gap hypothesis. In the present paper, the impacts of TV and newspaper
consumption on the distribution of political knowledge are studied. Two hypotheses are
tested: TV exposure as leveller and newspapers exposure as enhancer of the knowledge gap.
The empirical analyses are based on the 1997, 2001 and 2005 Norwegian election studies. | sv |
