Gatekeeping the Media: From Traditionalism to the Modern Digital Age

Crisis Communications and Media Relations

Meliah Michael
February 26, 2015

The concept of media gatekeeping is an evolving theory that has been under
investigation for decades (Ruth-McSwain, 2011). Since the beginning of news, there has been
a gatekeeper; however, as the content changes, the process in which it is chosen, transported
and interpreted changes as well. Journalists have been the gatekeepers thus far in history, but
the influence of social media has shifted the interpersonal dynamic between news, journalists
and the publics (Shoemaker, Riccio & Johnson, 2013). Despite obvious tensions between the
two professions, public relations is a developing aspect of modern news communication. As
the public relations department is key to the advancement of a successful company, a
practitioners job is to engage in strategic communication that will create beneficial
relationships between publics and organizations (Scopelliti, 2014). An understanding of the
history and theory of gatekeeping, as well as the history and emergence of public relations,
establishes the importance of public relations in a media-saturated society.
According to the Public Relations Journal (2011), gatekeeping provides professionals
with the ability to allow or discontinue organizational information, thus producing individuals
with strong connections with internal and external audiences (p.1). Gatekeeping has
contributed to other significant communication theories, such as agenda-setting, semantics
and the framing of messages (Roberts, 2005). These contributions are important aspects to
constructing informational and, oftentimes, sound-bite compatible news stories.
In 1927, Harold Laswell, a political scientist, conducted studies during World War I
that analyzed the steps involving the organization and execution of successful propaganda
campaigns. This study was the first of its kind, and set the stage for the ideas that transforms
the gatekeeping research conducted today (Shoemaker, Riccio & Johnson, 2013). Three
scholars since Laswell have spearheaded this modern gatekeeping theory and what it means
to be a good communicator.

Kurt Lewin, a German-American psychologist, first recognized this information

behavior and referred to it as gatekeeping (Jorgensen, 2009). By studying news
organizations, he dealt with the question of how news corporations filter extensive amounts
of information and funnel it into the space newspapers allow (Jorgensen, 2009). He illustrated
his findings by comparing gatekeeping to two channels in which food appeared on the table,
via grocery store or garden. Just as a cook prepares the food for consumption, the journalists
or public relations professionals prepares the news for the public (Shoemaker, Riccio &
Johnson, 2013).
Where Lewin established the scientific theory behind gatekeeping, Carl Hovland
studied the relationships between gatekeeping, persuasion and consumers attitudes (Dewey,
2007). Hovland sought to discover which factors influenced the success or failure of
persuasion (Dewey, 2007, p. 1). In Jowett and ODonnells 2015 Propaganda and Persuasion
study they state that Hovland developed the sleeper effect theory (2015). After studying a
variety of experimental contexts, he concluded that after people have forgotten the names and
specific qualifications of a persuader, the influence the person once had on the receivers
attitude disappears; ultimately, leaving behind the influencers message that provides the
basis for their attitudes.
In John Dimmicks 1947 journalism monograph, Dimmick deemed the gatekeeping
model as an uncertainty theory. He dismissed the simplicity of the gatekeeper theory that
was depicted in earlier studies. He isolated his concept through uncertainty reduction four
factors that must be considered when reading news content: gatekeepers are uncertain which
events are to be defined as news (p.16); gate-keepers potential universe identification
uncertainty is reduced (p.17); gate-keepers decision spaces are multidimensional (p.18)
and, gate-keepers actual universe selection uncertainty is reduced by the composition model
used by the gate-keeper (Allen, 1994). Through these formulas he concluded that reducing

the conflict between decision-makers and reducing ambiguity about the definition of news
would increase effective communication (Dimmick, 1974).
In the years since gatekeepings initial discovery, scholars have further analyzed the
modern, pragmatic characteristics of gatekeeping. More than four decades after Dimmicks
study, Pamela J. Shoemaker wrote a dissertation about media gatekeeping that reignited the
exploration of an outdated theory (Shoemaker, Riccio & Johnson, 2013). She stated that even
though gatekeeping continues to exist, the dynamic has changed; the modern process moves
much faster now. She credits the internet for the transition between traditional news gathering
and modern digital gate- keeping (Shoemaker, Riccio & Johnson, 2013). Additionally,
Scopelliti states in her Gatekeepers No More article, that due to the Internet becoming such
an integral part of everyday life, the mass-media model we write, you read no longer exists.
Transparency, openness and organization are critical components to the new media landscape.
Scopelliti also stresses that modern technology has urged a multi-way communication system
that includes information-sharing services that promote personalization, rapidity and
collaborative work.
Media convergence has allowed for consumers to access content based on their needs
through a variety of platforms (Scopelliti, 2014), thus gearing the information, and the
spreading of information, toward the publics. Twitter, Facebook, online news and blogs have
become increasingly popular; since their primary goal is to meet their publics needs, the
distribution of news is easier than ever before. Customer Engagement Report conducted
studies and found that engaged customers will recommend a companys brand, convert more
readily and purchase more often (p.2). Social media has created an environment that stresses
interactivity between the corporation and the public (Scopelliti, 2014). From the safety
behind a computer screen, opinions are often more honest and in some cases, critical toward a
product (Scopelliti, 2014).

Previously, journalists were the only gatekeepers. News stories were brought to,
printed by and distributed by the industry; however, times are changing. The internet has been
a harbor for the creation of news. Journalists are no longer the sole provider of news; anyone
with a camera and access to the internet has the ability to share news with the global Web
community (Scopelliti, 2014). Steve Burry, a previous newspaper editor, reflects in his blog,
on the days when he considered himself a media gatekeeper. It was not until the murder of
Trayvn Martin and the media slump the profession suffered afterwards, that Burry, and much
of society, recognize that traditional journalism had changed forever.

Needless to say,

journalism is not limited to newspapers; however, it was the beginning of a tremendous shift
in power. Burry states:
People can get their news from a seemingly endless selection of blogs and social
media accounts, some of them from independent journalists with the same standards
we have, some from newsmakers trying to cover themselves (some to spin the news,
some to provide legitimate journalism in areas we traditionally under covered), some
of them from the general public (Burry, 2011).
The journalism dynamic has made an obvious shift towards the people; conversely,
the more concealed change belongs to the Public Relations (P.R.) practioners. The Public
Relations Society of America defines P.R. as a strategic communication process that builds
mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics (Fiske, 2011). P.R.
has been a develops profession for decades, but as Dr. Fiske, the CEO of PRSA, described,
the technology has progressed in such a way that practioners are now given the freedom,
tools and channels to move past pitching stories to journalists (2011). Practioners are now
corporate story-tellers.

As concept creators, P.R. professionals are fully engaged in the modern conversation
age through a variety of mediums (Fiske, 2011). Practioners take on several jobs within the
company, many of which deal with blogs and social media: as the sources that are smothering
journalistic gatekeeping according to Burry. Public relations professionals filter through the
news a company directs at its publics, similarly to what feedback publics direct at the
company. In the United States, researchers estimate that 25% to 50% of news content is
influenced by P.R. professionals. Though customer responses are uncontrollable, and often
extremely public, practioners are in charge of what is to be done about the feedback.
This recent deviation between journalists and P.R. professionals has inflamed
previously existing tensions. Though mutually dependent on each other, distrust is apparent
as well (Gregory, 2007). Journalists are suspicious toward public relation professionals
because it is rumored that practitioners spin the truth. P.R. professionals are oftentimes
standing in between the press and the public, hindering what journalists want, a story
(Gregory, 2007). Journalists will often wrap the words of a public relations professional in a
way that will tarnish the practioners reputation, whether deserved or not. Neither side is full
of integrity nor are either full of dishonesty; nevertheless, the tensions between the two are
banning journalists from press conferences and cheapening the importance of public
relations. This rigidity is also furthering the voice of the layman journalist and giving the
public more opportunity to act as gatekeepers.
Since the theory of gatekeepings advent, scholars have created and revised the
society communicates. The development of the internet and social media have changed the
gate-keeping dynamic dramatically. Journalists are no longer the sole contributor to news, but
rather the entire internet-accessible world has come become part of the process. Public
relations professionals are integral to filtering through media; however, the job of

gatekeeping can no longer be excluded to a specific career field. Public relations

professionals are the face of the media; journalists, the voice; people, the producers.

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