Abstract
The knowledge gap research tradition seems to be almost dead as it draws minor attention nowadays. However, the old issue has got a new impetus in the form of prevalent use of ICT.
This fact has been utilized by several studies trying either to update the first-generation conceptions of knowledge gap by following educational differences in Internet use (Bonfadelli, 2002; Kim, 2008; Yang & Grabe, 2011) or to add practice level by conceptualizing usage gap (van Dijk, 2005; van Deursen & van Dijk, 2013). Drawing on the massmedia-framed knowledge gap research (Gaziano, 1983, 1995), the paper will show how today's use of knowledge gap hypothesis in Internet research overlooks both the richness of knowledge gap research history and contextual factors of information consumption.
On this background, the author will present the Czech 2014 data about the perceived increase in knowledgeability among Czech Internet users and the results of multiple regression analysis using this increase as a dependent variable and sociodemographics, digital skills, information habitus (aka motivation), ego-centric network, and Internet use indispensability as independent variables. The sample is 1316 respondents representative for the Czech population 15+.
As a conclusion, the possible directions of the knowledge gap research in the times of SNS are outlined.