Digital
technologies have fundamentally altered the nature and function of media in our
society, reinventing age-old practices of public communication and at times
circumventing traditional media and challenging its privileged role as
gatekeepers of news and entertainment.
Social
media platforms have become important sources of information for many people (Gottfried
and Shearer, 2016; Newman et
al., 2016). In response, newspapers have become active on social media to
reach out to these people and to attract them to their websites by distributing
links to their own news items (Bastos,
2015; Hille and
Bakker, 2013). The social media editors who manage the social media
accounts of these newspapers, who can be traditional journalists and more
specialized social media experts, thereby fulfill an important role in the
competition between news outlets.
Today's
technology also makes information no longer only produced by the newsroom.
Increasingly widespread social media makes news can be produced by anyone.
Citizen journalism is aspired to be able to empower people in recovery and care
for their environment and reduce the news monopoly by certain business groups.
But lately, information has become so much in every direction. Sometimes this
information still needs to be verified and incorrect or often called a hoax.
Moreover, the news produced by citizen journalism does not meet accepted
journalistic standards or principles.
Media gatekeeping showed that decision
making is based on principles of news values, organizational routines, input
structure and common sense. Gatekeeping is vital in communication planning and
almost all communication planning roles include some aspect of gatekeeping.
the
rising popularity of social media as a popular platform for news distribution,
complex networks of interdependent gatekeepers are emerging (Goode,
2009). Someone, possibly a news organization itself, can post a
news item or a link to a news item on a platform such as Facebook. A person who
has a direct social network tie to the original poster can see this post and
can interact with the post (e.g. liking, commenting, sharing).1 Other people
connected to this person can see these interactions, due to which the content
can diffuse further throughout the network. Essentially, this makes every actor
that is exposed to the content a potential gatekeeper, but with different
levels of influence (Shoemaker
and Vos, 2009). Actors with a central position in the network, such as news
organizations with many followers, can reach many people at once, akin to
traditional mass communication. Yet, as we will address shortly, due to the
speed of communication and high level of interconnectedness on social media,
news with a high level of “share worthiness” (Trilling
et al., 2017) can diffuse rapidly even without mass communication, similar
to how a contagious virus can spread rapidly throughout a dense population.
There
are some levels of micro and macro influence on gatekeepers, arguing that
gatekeepers no longer occur in one part of the gatekeeper process but in all
parts. The first level focuses on individual communicator factors (for example,
personal background, experience, attitudes, beliefs, etc.). The second level is
media routines (for example, audience orientation, newsroom routines). The
third level of organizational influence (for example, internal structure,
ownership, goals, and policies). Extrinsic strengths or extra media factors for
media organizations are the fourth level (egsources, advertisers, viewers,
government control, market competition, technology). The last level is media
ideology. [3] In addition, the audience can directly give effect to the
construction of news produced by the newsroom. Audience responses can be
filters that shape the news, such as criticism or boycott threats that can
"discipline" the media [4]. But indirectly the audience can also have
an influence, such as when journalists are oriented to present what they think
the audience wants, even though this estimate may not be in line with the
audience's actual wishes. This orientation to the audience is an example of
routine-level influence.
Agenda
setting is important to gatekeeping. Simply put, agenda-setting is the media
giving an idea to the audience of what to think about. This is mainly used
during election campaigns and political communications where the media gives
information to the public on what are the changes a party has brought so far or
what will be brought. This simply shows the media how much their news has
affected or has created an impact in public and helps them set an agenda for
the next dissemination accordingly. Audience and their consumption are the
major factors that are influencing the Agenda Setting.
The
gatekeeper’s choices are a complex web of influences, preferences, motives, and
common values. Gatekeeping is inevitable and in some circumstances it can be
useful. Gatekeeping can also be dangerous since it can lead to an abuse of
power by deciding what information to discard and what to let pass.
Nowadays
the gatekeeper of online media who determines the news, is entering a
transformation to face changes in existing technology. Nevertheless, the
important gatekeeper war is still awaited because of the rampant information
revised by the Gatekeeper online media which has an important role in shaping
public opinion. But market appetite pressures are coming through analytic
practices in the online media newsroom.
Reference:
- Social media gatekeeping: An analysis of the gatekeeping influence of newspapers’ public Facebook pages - Kasper Welbers, Michaël Opgenhaffen, 2018 (sagepub.com)
- *The_Role_of_Online_Media_Gatekeeper_in_the_Era_of_.pdf
- Theories of Mass Media: Gatekeeping, Agenda-setting, Framing, and Priming Theory (sociologygroup.com)
- Gate Keeping in Media - Mass Communication Talk
- Media in the Digital Age | Columbia University Press
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