Are you the gatekeeper?

In journalism there are many legal and moral issues that society has to try to deal with. One issue that I’ve recently learned about is gatekeepers that really affect journalism and the way society receives their daily news. Gatekeepers are increasing in numbers and it’s harder and harder not to deal with a gatekeeper of some form. A gatekeeper first started out as someone that helps editors and journalists do responsible reporting by checking stories facts. Slowly gatekeepers started being seen as a harmful tool towards journalism. A gatekeeper control what stories becomes news whether on the radio, television, internet or any other form of media. Journalists are also considered gatekeepers, for example how I choose to write this blog on gatekeepers rather than a different moral issue to share with the public.

Editors are journalists’ gatekeepers; editors have to choose what journalists write about and which stories get transferred into news through newspapers and magazines. Corporations that own types of media, like newspapers, can even be gatekeepers by being biased and deciding which stories enhance their image better to the public.

Gatekeepers really determine what messages will be delivered to society in the form of media. Journalists write an abundant amount of stories which get sent to their editor being a gatekeeper. Then the editor chooses which stories to publish. How does one choose which stories are good enough to make it through and be printed in ink? The tragedy with the earthquake in Haiti every journalist writing about this story has a gatekeeper saying what stories to write or what images to show the public.

This concept of gatekeeper is an important issue to journalist because journalists rarely win against gatekeepers. If a journalist wanted to write about the financial holes in a fat cat corporation but the journalist’s company does business with the big corporation the journalist will not be able to write their story. A gatekeeper would make sure not to let that story onto the front page even if the story is very compelling and the public would be very interested in reading it.

Journalist need to remember why they write and be passionate about the stories they write. Hopefully gatekeepers will start to decrease and the general public will be more informed. But until then journalist need to write the stories they want in their own voice and not let gatekeepers turn them into writers that only write in the voice of the corporation.

Citations

Kovach, Bill, and Tom Rosenstiel. "Gatekeeping." he Century Foundation Press (1999): n. pag. Web. 15 Jan 2010. .

Rodman, George. Mass Media In A Changing World. 3rd Ed. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2009. 7-8. Print.