Gatekeeping is the process through which information is filtered for dissemination, be it publication, broadcasting, the Internet, or some other type of communication. As an academic theory, it is found in several fields, including communication studies

Communication studies

Communication Studies is an academic field that deals with processes of communication, commonly defined as the sharing of symbols over distances in space and time. Hence, communication studies encompasses a wide range of topics and contexts ranging from face-to-face conversation to speeches to mass...

, journalism

Journalism

Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...

, political science

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

, and sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

. Originally focused on the mass media with its few-to-masses dynamic, theories of gatekeeping also now include the workings of face-to-face communication and the many-to-many dynamic now easily available via the Internet. The theory was first instituted by social psychologist Kurt Lewin

Kurt Lewin

Kurt Zadek Lewin was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology....

 in 1947 and is still an important theory in mass communication

Mass communication

Mass communication is the term used to describe the academic study of the various means by which individuals and entities relay information through mass media to large segments of the population at the same time...

and journalism. Gatekeeping occurs at all levels of the media structure - from a reporter deciding which sources are chosen to include in a story to editors deciding which stories are printed or covered, and includes media outlet owners and even advertisers. Outside of media organizations, individuals can also act as gatekeepers, deciding what information to include in an email or in a blog, for example.

History

Although Kurt Lewin coined the phrase gatekeeping, it was first applied to the study of news by one of his assistants, David Manning White. In a 1950 study he examined copy submitted to a small city daily newspaper during a one week period in 1949. The editor of the newspaper provided information on why stories were rejected. White found the decision making process to be 'highly subjective'. Although there was much criticism of White's conclusion, his study led to further research in the area of gatekeeping.

External links

• Gatekeeping: regulate the flow of information, University of Twente, the Netherlands