Ticino's "knowledge gap theory" hypothesis holds that "because people with high socioeconomic status usually get information faster than those with low socioeconomic status, the more information the mass media transmits, the greater the knowledge gap between them." In addition to the economic conditions of contacting the media and learning knowledge, Ticino believes that there are five factors that cause the "knowledge gap" to expand: the media that spread a certain depth of public affairs and scientific knowledge are mainly print media, and its audience is mainly concentrated in the highly educated class. This is not the same as advertising. Scientific knowledge, public affairs and news are generally not repetitive, but repetition is beneficial for people with low social status to learn and be familiar with the topic. "Knowledge gap theory" believes that in operation, the "knowledge gap" hypothesis can be manifested in at least the following two ways:

First, after a period of time, people with high education gain knowledge about the topics reported by the media faster than those with low education.

Second, in a certain period of time, the topic widely reported by the media has a higher correlation between knowledge acquisition and education level than the topic not widely reported.

The "knowledge gap theory" holds that when one or more of the above five factors work, the social and economic strata with high status are in a favorable position, which is the fundamental reason for the continuous expansion of the "knowledge gap", especially the "knowledge gap". Therefore, when the mass media traffic is increasing, communication skills, knowledge reserve, social interaction and attitude choice all play a role to a certain extent, and the "knowledge gap" also deepens.