Gatekeeping | Gatewatching

Journalism 101Reynolds School of JournalismSeptember 2010

Gatekeeping

“A regime of control over what content is allowed to emerge from the production processes in print and broadcast media; the controllers (journalists, editors, owners) of these media…control the gates through which content is released to their audiences.” (Axel Bruns, Gatewatching, p.11)

Gatekeeping as a form of filter

News organizations have to limit the amount of information they gather and distribute; they can’t gather and report everything.

We all use filters to organize and limit the amount of news and information we process

Deliberate gatekeeping

The question is whether our filters are deliberate, accessible and open to adjustment

Or whether they are unconscious, out of our control or systematically arranged to prevent certain ideas from reaching the public

Governmental “gatekeeping”

Censorship acts as a gate to prevent certain ideas from reaching the public

This Iranian-Canadian blogger was just sentenced to 19 years in prison for blogging about Iranian politics:

U.S. examples

This is “Banned Books” week. Excerpts of banned books will be read tonight at 6 pm in the Knowledge Center

Banned Book Reading In this week’s Sagebrush, VP Steven

Zink says they are considering “temporarily shutting off areas of Internet access” on campus to reduce music piracy

Journalistic gatekeeping

Favors some groups over others, some places more than other places

Promotes some ideals more than others

Covers some kinds of news more than other kinds

Is influenced by economic concerns

Mass media gatekeeping occurs

In the newsgathering stage In the news publishing stage In the response stage

Push media vs. pull media

Gatekeeping differs between books, newspapers and magazines (pull media), and radio and television (pull media).

What is the Web? Cell phones? ipads?

Live news

Alters the gatekeeping practices of journalists

The question of ‘what is appropriate’ always lingers

“Our involvement in a story can change things forever”

Online news changes gatekeeping

Large number of news outlets Low barriers to entry 24/7 availability Global access to sources

Social media makes gatekeeping even more chaotic

Secrets are very difficult to keep Anyone can publish any time Control moves from the publisher to

the audience, from the source to the receiver, from the institution to the individual

We still need “centers”

“Gatewatchers” observe the output gates of news publications and other sources in order to identify important material as it becomes available

We need order, surveillance, warning systems to alert us; information for action, decision making; culture for connection and community

Twitter, Facebook, news sites, newspapers, magazines…

Enable individuals to select their own set of “gatewatchers” to follow, read and share

Gatewatchers can be ‘citizen editors,’ professional journalists, experts, friends with similar interests

We also perform our own gatewatching of primary sources

How Twitter works

See the videos posted on our wiki site (under Sept. 29)

Here’s the most basic:“How to use Twitter”

Case study

A human rights journalist working for Mother Jones magazine

Mac McClelland tweets her reporting experiences

She is in Haiti covering the aftermath of the earthquake; violence against women is a terrible problem in the temporary tent camps (Interviews with victims)

Tweeting an interview with a rape victim

The journalist, who will write an in-depth story for Mother Jones magazine, is tweeting about her experiences of reporting in Haiti.

@MacMcClelland (Twitter account) She twittered an interview she

conducted with a rape victim, including going with her to the doctor

Editor’s opinion

Mother Jones’ editor, Clara Jeffrey, gave her approval for the journalist to tweet the story.

Filters for this story

Journalist level: She had to decide whether to use Twitter or not

Editor level: She had to decide whether to let the journalist twitter or not

Distribution level: Haiti and Twitter have to decide whether to block communication

Receiver level: The receiver has to decide whether to subscribe to the tweets or not

Where would you put the filters?

1. It’s the responsibility of the individual journalist to avoid sensationalism, possible exploitation

2. It’s the responsibility of the news organization to avoid potentially offensive or harmful communication

3. It’s the responsibility of the individual to set his or her own filters

Choose filter #1, #2 or #3

Get in a group of like-minded students

Share your reasons for why you support that particular level of filter.

Have someone record the reasons. Have someone volunteer to

articulate the reasons to the rest of the class.

You have ____ minutes to do this.