ZeePedia

KNOWLEDGE GAP THEORY:Criticism on Marshal McLuhan

<< MARSHALL MCLUHAN: THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE AND MASSAGE
MEDIA SYSTEM DEPENDENCY THEORY:Media System Dependency Theory >>
img
Theories of Communication ­ MCM 511
VU
LESSON 37
KNOWLEDGE GAP THEORY
Criticism on Marshal McLuhan
Criticism within academia was that his ideas were too diverse and inconsistent.
They were astounded by his notion that literacy was obsolete and found his praise of nonlinear thinking
nonsensical or even dangerous. They thought nonlinear thinking was just another label for logically
inconsistent random thoughts.
Empirical media researchers were also uniformly critical of McLuhan.
The early small scale empirical studies failed to support his assertions, these suspicions were confirm,
his was just another grand theorist whose ideas were overly speculative and empirically unverifiable.
Evens critical cultural theorists criticized his work. These theorists found McLuhan's theory to be a
perversion of Innis' ideas. Rather than attempt reform of the superstructure or lead a revolution to take
control of the base, McLuhan was content to wait for technology to lead us forward into the global
village.
He seemed to be saying that our fate is in the hands of media technology, and we are constrained to go
where ever it leads. The political economists were this as encouraging and sanctioning the development
of potentially dangerous new forms of electronic media, which might lead to a painful future- a
nightmare global village in which one is constantly watched and coerced by remote elites. As long as
existing elites remain in power, political economists saw little hope for positive change.
They condemned McLuhan for diverting attention from more important work and perverting the radical
notions found in Innis' writing.
Knowledge Gap Theory
Scholars like Tichenor, Donohue, and Olien in 1986 developed a theory of society in which mass media
and the use of media messages play a central role. This model focuses on the role played by news media
in cities and towns of various sizes. These areas are conceptualized as subsystems within larger state
and regional social systems. The team began by empirically establishing that news media systematically
inform some segments of the population, specifically persons in higher socioeconomic groups, better
than the media inform others theory.
Overtime, the differences between the better informed and the less informed segments tend to grow ­
the knowledge gap between them gets larger and larger. This team conducted numerous surveys for 25
years to develop and support its. But just how should these knowledge gaps be interpreted? Do they
pose long term problems of subsystems or for the overall system? Could knowledge gaps actually be
functional in some way? If we rely on classical democratic libertarian theory to answer these questions,
knowledge gaps are troubling; we can be concerned that the people who are less well informed will not
be able to act as responsible citizens. If they act at all they will do so, based on ignorance. On the other
hand, if we use elite pluralism theory to speculate about the consequences of knowledge gaps, we are
less concerned, after all there is a strong correlation between political ignorance and political apathy.
If the less informed don't vote, then they can't upset the system, as long as there is an active, informed
minority of societal leaders, the overall system should function smoothly- problems should be resolved
by this elite based on their superior knowledge
These scholars recognized that documenting the existence of knowledge gaps was only the first step in
assessing media's role in social systems at various levels.
In the next phase of their research, the team explored the long-term implications of knowledge gaps for
the operation of local communities by studying the role played by news media when communities
confront social conflicts. Would news media enable communities to effectively resolve these conflicts
or would the conflicts be exacerbated (intensified)? What would happen to knowledge gaps?
The researcher studied conflicts in 19 different cities that were debating environmental pollution,
wilderness logging, and the construction of high voltage power lines; these conflicts could have been
116
img
Theories of Communication ­ MCM 511
VU
resolved in several ways. If the elite pluralism perspective was accurate, news media would only inform
a politically active minority and this group would control the conflict and resolve it. If classical
democratic libertarian theory was accurate, news media would inform everyone and the conflict would
be resolved through negotiation and public debate. In fact, neither of these older theories was very
useful in predicting what happened, a more complicated, systems theory ­ based perspective proved
useful in interpreting the empirical findings.
In nearly every case, conflicts were initiated by external agents, local leaders, including newspaper
publisher, were often co-opted by powerful regional businesses such as electrical power companies or
big manufactures , the research team found that as conflicts escalated, more and more groups were
activated from all segments of a community, even normally apolitical or apathetic people were
eventually drawn into as escalating conflict, news coverage of conflict-related issues increased, but
within same communities, most of the information came from outside media local media either avoided
reporting about conflicts or severely limited their reports, little useful information was provided, as
time passed, ordinarily uninformed individuals made better use of outside news media related to the
conflict.
Thus, the knowledge gap tended to narrow between those population segments that were initially well
informed about these issues and those that were ignorant.
117
Table of Contents:
  1. COMMUNICATION:Nature of communication, Transactional approach, Communication is symbolic:
  2. THEORY, PARADIGM AND MODEL (I):Positivistic Perspective, Critical Perspective
  3. THEORY, PARADIGM AND MODEL (II):Empirical problems, Conceptual problems
  4. FROM COMMUNICATION TO MASS COMMUNICATION MODELS:Channel
  5. NORMATIVE THEORIES:Authoritarian Theory, Libertarian Theory, Limitations
  6. HUTCHINS COMMISSION ON FREEDOM, CHICAGO SCHOOL & BASIC PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY THEORY
  7. CIVIC JOURNALISM, DEVELOPMENT MEDIA THEORY & DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPANT THEORY
  8. LIMITATIONS OF THE PRESS THEORY:Concentration and monopoly, Commercialism
  9. MCQUAIL’S FOUR KINDS OF THEORIES:Social scientific theory, Critical theory
  10. PROPAGANDA THEORIES:Origin of Propaganda, Engineering of Consent, Behaviorism
  11. PARADIGM SHIFT & TWO STEP FLOW OF INFORMATION
  12. MIDDLE RANGE THEORIES:Background, Functional Analysis Approach, Elite Pluralism
  13. KLAPPER’S PHENOMENSITIC THEORY:Klapper’s Generalizations, Criticism
  14. DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION THEORY:Innovators, Early adopters
  15. CHALLENGING THE DOMINANT PARADIGM:Catharsis Social learning Social cognitive theory
  16. SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEROY:Symbolizing Capacity, MODELLING
  17. MODELING FROM MASS MEDIA:Recent research, Summary, PRIMING EFFECTS
  18. PRIMING EFFECT:Conceptual Roots, Perceived meaning, Percieved justifiability
  19. CULTIVATION OF PERCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL REALITY:History
  20. SYSTEMS THEORIES OF COMMUNICATION PROCESSES:System
  21. EMERGENCE OF CRITICAL & CULTURAL THEORIES OF MASS COMMUNICATION
  22. REVISION:Positivistic perspective, Interpretive Perspective, Inductive approach
  23. CRITICAL THEORIES & ROLE OF MASS COMMUNICATION IN A SOCIETY -THE MEDIATION OF SOCIAL RELATIONS
  24. ROLE OF MASS MEDIA IN SOCIAL ORDER & MARXIST THEORY:Positive View
  25. KEY PRINCIPLES USED IN MARXISM:Materialism, Class Struggle, Superstructure
  26. CONSUMER SOCIETY:Role of mass media in alienation, Summary of Marxism
  27. COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE:Neo Marxism, Characteristics of Culture
  28. HEGEMONY:What exactly is the meaning of "hegemony"?
  29. CULTURE INDUSTRY:Gramscianism on Communications Matters
  30. POLITICAL ECONOMIC THEORY I:Internationalization, Vertical Integration
  31. POLITICAL ECONOMIC THEORY II:Diversification, Instrumental
  32. POLITICAL ECONOMIC THEORY III:Criticism, Power of Advertising
  33. AGENDA SETTING THEORY:A change in thinking, First empirical test
  34. FRAMING & SPIRAL OF SILENCE:Spiral of Silence, Assessing public opinion
  35. SPIRAL OF SILENCE:Fear of isolation, Assessing public opinion, Micro-level
  36. MARSHALL MCLUHAN: THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE AND MASSAGE
  37. KNOWLEDGE GAP THEORY:Criticism on Marshal McLuhan
  38. MEDIA SYSTEM DEPENDENCY THEORY:Media System Dependency Theory
  39. USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY:Methods
  40. RECEPTION THEORY
  41. FRAMING AND FRAME ANALYSIS:Information Processing Theory, Summing up
  42. TRENDS IN MASS COMMUNICATION I:Communication Science, Direct channels
  43. TRENDS IN MASS COMMUNICATION II:Communication Maxims, Emotions
  44. GLOBALIZATION AND MEDIA:Mediated Communication, Post Modernism
  45. REVISION:Microscopic Theories, Mediation of Social Relations