doi:./ijpor/edn Advance Access publication May TESTING THE KNOWLEDGE GAP HYPOTHESIS IN SOUTH KOREA: TRADITIONAL NEWS MEDIA, THE INTERNET, AND POLITICAL LEARNING

Analyzing data from a survey of South Korean respondents, this study explores the role of news media in informing the audience about politics. In particular, it is exam-ined whether different forms of news media function to increase the gap in political knowledge between socioeconomic classes. Consistent with findings in the United States, newspaper reading was positively related to political learning. Use of political web sites also indicated a small learning effect. Data supported the knowledge gap hypothesis. There was a considerable gap in political knowledge between highly educated and less-educated respondents. More importantly, the gap was even greater among heavy newspaper readers and among political Web users. These findings indicate that newspapers and the Internet may function to increase the gap between social classes. News media play an important role as an information source from which citizens learn about public affairs. This informational function is important in a number of respects, mostly because of the strong link between levels of political knowledge and participation in various civic activities (Rosenstone & Hansen, ; Verba, Schlozman, & Brady, ). Political learning also allows citizens to make careful evaluations of issues and candidates, promoting more informed political judgment (Kim, Scheufele, & Shanahan, ). An unintended effect in transmitting news, however, is an increase in the gap in political knowledge between social classes (Moore, ). Knowledge gap research (Tichenor, Donohue, & Olien, ) suggests that segments of the population with higher socioeconomic status (SES) acquire media-transmitted information at a faster rate than lower-status segments. The media, therefore, This article was first submitted to IJPOR January , . The final version was received on August ,