Gatekeeping theory.

Editor's Introduction

Gatekeeping theory and applications of gatekeeping to the media constitute a venerable communication studies tradition, dating to the late 1940s (for the theory) and early 1950s (for the application to communication). In brief, the communication use of the theory tries to explain how information reaches audiences: communication media do not transmit all information, or did not in the "classical" period of newspapers, radio, and television. In that period publishers matched printed pages to the advertising that could support them; broadcasters included news as a public service. In a similar vein, other content--music, serialized stories, drama, comedy, and so on--also faced the need to fit into a finite communication channel. Given the practical limitations, then, of space or time, someone, somewhere decided what was news or entertainment or fitting content for the media.

Researchers, beginning with White (1950), applied the term gatekeeping and the theory (first proposed by Lewin, 1947) to the news industry, since its structure of reporters and editors clearly illustrated the filtering process through which information passed before it reached an audience. The theory proved robust and helpful for decades. Gans (1979), for example, applied it to the national news, both broadcast and print, in the period after the Watergate scandal, offering a detailed treatment of how the news media actually worked, through a careful participant observation of four major news media. In this as well as in Lewin's original formulations, researchers took a more sociological approach to the communication questions.

The advent of the Internet changed both the manner of communication and the media through which people get information. Not surprisingly, it also changed the role of decision making about what actually reaches people. Unlike broadcasters, for example, Internet service providers often pursue a policy of "network neutrality" regarding what traverses the Internet.

In the review presented here, David DeIuliis of Duquesne University offers an introduction to more recent work on gatekeeping. Even with online media more or less removing the limitations of available space or available time, gatekeeping seems to have changed its role and operations. But it still exists. Theorists, p articularly from information management areas have wrestled with explaining what has changed, even as many communication scholars have more or less assumed that the original gatekeeping theories still apply. Though the networks may have few theoretical space limitations, people still have finite time and attention.

Referring to the expanded theory as "network gatekeeping" and drawing on the work of one key theorist, DeIuliis offers this brief summary in his abstract:

      Network gatekeeping theory applies the conceptual infrastructure
   of gatekeeping theory, in which journalists select which news the
   public sees, to social and information networks created by the Web,
   where the ability of users to create and circulate their own
   content changes the roles of gated and gatekeeper. Introduced by
   Karine Barzilai-Nahon, network gatekeeping redefines the concepts
   of gatekeeping theory. It extends beyond selection of news to the
   manipulation of information. This article situates network
   gatekeeping theory within the history of gatekeeping theory and
   applies network gatekeeping to three social networks: Digg,
   Facebook, and Twitter.

DeIuliis argues that gatekeeping occurs but in a different way.

This issue of Communication Research Trends returns, then, to the world of mass communication, particularly in its digital embodiment.

David DeIuliis is a Ph.D. candidate and Visiting Instructor in the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

References

Gans, H. (1979). Deciding what's news: A study of CBS evening news, NBC nightly news, Newsweek, and Time. New York: Random House.

Lewin, K. (1947). Frontiers in group dynamics: II. Channels of group life, social planning, and action research. Human Relations, 1(2), 143-153.

White, D. (1950). The "gate keeper": A case study in the selection of news. Journalism Quarterly, 27(4), 383-390.