Television news as a source of knowledge about the violence for children in Ireland: A test of the knowledge-gap hypothesis

Abstract

Two studies were undertaken to examine the role of television news broadcasts in providing knowledge about the “troubles” in Northern Ireland. In the first study, which involved 488 children living in five different parts of Ireland, analysis of variance indicated that the closer children lived to the violence and the more they watched the television news, the greater their knowledge about the violence in the North. These two factors, however, did not interact. A second study involved 593 children, aged either 8 or 11 years and living in three different area types: the South of Ireland, a “quiet” area in the North, or a “violent” area in the North. Again, children in the South knew less than did children in the North but no difference emerged between the children in the two different areas in the North. This time television news viewing was related to greater knowledge for 11 year olds only. Overall, therefore, the results suggest that while television news may indeed be one of the sources of knowledge about violence for children in Ireland, its impact is uniform regardless of baseline levels of knowledge from other sources, contrary to the knowledge-gap hypothesis.