Gatekeeping

The term gatekeeping refers to the process by which information can be included or excluded by a mediator prior to reaching an audience. It has been conceptualized both as a normative journalistic role and as a theory. The concept was initially developed by David Manning White in 1950 through a published article “The ‘Gate Keeper’: A Case Study in the Selection of News” in Journalism Quarterly. White was inspired by the work of social scientist Kurt Lewin, who used the term to describe the organizations that could affect the distribution of food. As this entry shows, gatekeeping has proven to be a resilient concept in mass communication theory. Long before digital technology challenged the assumptions of numerous theories, gatekeeping theory had already been adjusted and reshaped in relation to changes in media.

[Page 727]The theory emerged from the observations made during the legacy media era—an era in which the content decisions for a mass audience were made by editors and, it was assumed, passive audiences would simply receive the content presented. In its earliest iteration, gatekeeping theory sought to understand how news was selected for publication in legacy media. Given this tie to legacy media, it is then unsurprising that theory has been critiqued—the theory’s vitality would seem to be inextricably tied to the vitality of legacy media. After all, while White’s “Mr. Gates” could only make room for one story out of every ten in the news, contemporary news platforms have either lessened or eliminated restrictions on the amount of content. Yet the theory has remained viable in part because the theory’s foundational interest in accounting for the fact that not all information is equally available. Through the lens of this foundational interest, gatekeeping then refers to the factors that inhibit or promote information flow. This remains essential in discussions of our contemporary mediascape. The transition in gatekeeping, Timothy Vos argues, has not led to the “termination of gatekeeping” (2015, p. 11).

It is at times postulated that gatekeeping is less consequential if such an array of gates is available, yet, as Vos points out, the array of gates does nothing to affect change in the role of the individual gatekeeper. Journalists generally argue that their function in the gatekeeping process includes tasks ranging from serving as a public forum to checking abuses of power—certainly these are also roles performed elsewhere. Hence, while many gates may be available, this does not change the gatekeeping role journalists play in news selection—and given the amplification of elite sources on social media and elsewhere—in some ways their role may be more valuable as opposed to less.

Rather than becoming obsolete, gatekeeping has been drawn upon in recent years as a concept useful for calling attention to the role played by digital platforms in the presentation of news, through supplementary concepts such as “algorithmic gatekeeping” or “gate programming.” These concepts subtend the argument that the process of gatekeeping is increasingly being done by artificial intelligence and computers. As Peter Bro notes, there are three different models of gatekeeping characterized by information, communication, and elimination. In the information model, journalists decide what news is included or ignored in the news media as a result of interaction with news sources—the aim in this model is to provide the public with information. In the second model, gatekeeping occurs through a facilitative process through which citizens and decision makers interact with journalists and collectively help produce the final news story—the aim in this model is ensuring communication. In the third model, journalists are left out of the process. Citizens and decision makers interact directly through means of social media technologies and can produce and publish news of their own. This final model, Bro argues, actually represents a return to the bygone era of direct communication where powerful institutions took it upon themselves to communicate directly with citizens.

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