Gatekeeping Similar for Online, Print Journalists

Abstract

__________________________________________Gatekeepi ng theory has been called "one of the most easily accessible theories" 1 and is certainly one of the most enduring in mass communication research. 2 Shoemaker writes that the basic idea of gatekeeping-that there is some selectivity in how and how many news items are presented-has always been apparent. 3 Initial inquiries into gatekeeping theory looked at the decisions of a lone gatekeeper. 4 However, subsequent analyses of that research contend that the work of those individual gatekeepers was influenced by other levels of gatekeeping forces, such as the professional routines of journalists and the influence of the news organization, 5 thus revealing gatekeeping to be more complex than previously thought. In fact, Shoemaker, Eichholz, Kim and Wrigley assert that "gatekeeping in mass communication can be seen as the overall process through which the social reality transmitted by the news media is constructed." 6 Recent efforts 7 have integrated gatekeeping theory with Shoemaker and Reese's hierarchical model of news influences, which allows for the study of gatekeeping on five levels of analysis-individual, routine, organizational characteristics, extramedia and ideological. 8 Gatekeeping theory has also been labeled an effective conceptual approach to studying online journalists. 9 This project seeks to further extend these areas of research through an examination of the influence of gatekeeping forces at the individual and routine levels on the professional role conceptions of print and online daily newspaper journalists.Cassidy is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

The Contextualization of the Watchdog and Civic Journalistic Roles: Reevaluating Journalistic Role Performance in U.S. Newspapers

“…This study also provides understanding of how story elements, routine levels of newsroom influence, correlate to the civic or watchdog models, in that these models are found more prevalently on front pages versus inside pages of newspapers (Kim, 2012;Cassidy, 2006;Carpenter, 2008). This study therefore counters the argument that the civic oriented model is less suited to American journalism than it is to journalism in other parts of the world (Ahva, 2012) arguing instead that the routine levels of the gatekeeping process may in fact override American journalists' individual watchdog role conceptions resulting in civic oriented content.…”

“…Although features are longer in length and sometimes prominence, they are often located in the inside pages of a newspaper, whereas breaking news and hard news will often be featured as articles (Pottker, 2003). Deciding whether or not a story will be written as a feature or an article is usually the decision of the supervisor or editor and also a measurement of the routine level (Cassidy, 2006).…”

“…As the name implies, journalists use the "inverted pyramid" to place the most important information at the top of the article, such as the who, what, where, when and why of a story (Pottker, 2003). This style of writing is taught through aspiring journalists' formal training (usually in post-secondary education), a measure of the routine level (Cassidy, 2006) Features are not only longer in length than articles, yet they give the journalist more room to be creative, yet still logical (Stephenson, 1998). Due to the length of a feature, it does not have the same competition on the page from other articles, and therefore a more conversational, narrative approach is often used (Stephenson, 1998).…”

“…Along with story type and placement, the sources featured in news stories fall under routine forces (Cassidy, 2006). Furthermore, evaluating the newsworthiness of sources is also decided at the routine level (Kim, 2012) and diversity of content is limited by routines (Shoemaker, 2012).…”

Counter-ideological forces of “Mr Gate” in online Journalism in Malaysia: A study of MalaysiaKini and The Malaysian Insider

“…Subsequent studies indicate that gatekeeping is actually a complex process in which news productions are filtered by a number of factors, such as the professional routines of journalists and the organisational structure [8,11,23] Gatekeeping, therefore, is seen as more of a group effort with multiple gates within the newsroom [8,25]. In 2000, Shoemaker and Reese [23] further refined the gatekeeping theory by introducing the hierarchical model of news influences, which allows for the study of gatekeeping on five levels of analysis: individual, routine, organisational characteristics, extra-media, and ideological.…”