Post #8: The Dangers of Gatekeeping

 
    

    The First Amendment reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Within recent years, the government has not upheld this promise to the people, especially when it comes to freedom of the press. The press is often censored and if they do publish articles that criticize the government or spread more obscure beliefs, they are usually labeled with a warning about misinformation. The pursuit of truth is tried and tested time and time again as it is becoming increasingly more difficult to find information that does not follow the trend of mainstream media. Gatekeeping describes the process of filtering information for distribution to the public, whether for publication, broadcasting, the internet, or some other mode of communication.

    The Gatekeeping Theory was originally thought of by the German social psychologist Kurt Lewin. Lewin’s studies focused on human behavior and how each person’s experiences and perceptions of themselves and others are affected by the beliefs held by other groups and individuals. The concept of gatekeeping is simple. Lewin’s model to the left shows that N, the news source, has several news items that they would like to push through the channel (N1, N2, N3, and N4); however, there is a gate (perhaps taking the form of the government or other media sources) that prevents some of those news items (N1 and N4) from passing through and reaching M, the audience. News sources might decide not to publish particular stories in order to protect the reputation of their network, but it’s not fair to the people who want to stay informed and current.

    There are several examples of information being gatekept by today’s media. For instance, there was a very important news conference held between Russia and Ukraine on February 17, 2022. It was challenging to find coverage on this critical conference because many American news outlets did not publish any stories about it or live-stream the event on their channels. People who wanted to know what was going on during the conference needed to search for more inconspicuous news sources. Below is a TedTalk by Randall Mikkelsen, a veteran journalist who is now managing editor at Thomson Reuters. In his talk, Mikkelsen describes the importance of being your own gatekeeper and how to combat fake news.

    

    Gatekeeping has many negative implications. It limits the public’s access to seeking out accurate, unbiased information and it blurs the lines of what is true from what is false. Additionally, gatekeeping completely contradicts the principle of the marketplace of ideas. As a society, we are supposed to be exposed to multiple viewpoints and perspectives that way we are able to make informed decisions about which ones are best, but gatekeeping only allows certain voices to be heard. How can someone think for him or herself when they are being spoon-fed by the media? Gatekeeping goes against one of our most valued fundamentals in the United States: freedom. Without freedom and access to knowledge, we are confined to one set of belief systems as a whole and are unable to formulate our own opinions.

Sources:

Davie, G. (2018, November 2). Gatekeeping theory. Mass Communication Theory. Retrieved February 15, 2022, from https://masscommtheory.com/theory-overviews/gatekeeping-theory/#:~:text=Based%20on%20personal%20preference%2C%20professional,pass%20through%20the%20their%20audience.&text=Gatekeeping%20may%20also%20hold%20influence,into%20the%20audience's%20confirmation%20bias. 

DeIuliis, D. (2015). In this gatekeeping theory from social fields to social ...cscc.scu.edu/trends/v34/crt_v34_n1_ ¢  mation - [PDF document]. vdocuments.mx. Retrieved February 15, 2022, from https://vdocuments.mx/in-this-gatekeeping-theory-from-social-fields-to-social-csccscuedutrendsv34crtv34n1.html 

Shoemaker, P., Riccio, J., & Johnson, P. (2013). Gatekeeping. Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199756841-0011