Introductory models & basic concepts: White's gatekeeping model

White's Model

Interestingly, the notion of gatekeeping is said by the Associated Examining Board's Chief Examiner to be fundamental to Communication Studies, whilst Tim O'Sullivan says in Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies: 'The gatekeeper concept is now generally regarded as oversimplified and of little utility' (O'Sullivan et al (19??)). It seems at first sight such an obvious concept, especially when applied to the news media, which is where you'll probably come across it most. Not everything that happens makes it into the news - well, that's hardly a revelation, is it? It does, however, lead to a number of interesting questions as to why some events do make it into the news and others don't.

Gatekeepers include reporters, copytasters, sub-editors, editors and, to a lesser extent, media owners. They also include the government and the EU via legislation, as well as the European Council and the United Nations, via declarations on human rights and civil liberties. They include pressure groups concerned with media output, such as the National Viewers and Listeners' Association as well as academic research institutes, who, while they may have no direct influence over media content, may be able to exert considerable pressure. Similar pressure will also come from political parties and from single issue groups such as Greenpeace. The concept is therefore perhaps 'of little utility' in itself, but, to the extent that it sends us off looking for all of those sources of influence on the gatekeeping process, it's a useful starting point.

In interpersonal and intrapersonal communication, the concept is also of some interest. Why do we keep some information to ourselves? Why, indeed, do we keep some information from ourselves?

Perhaps a useful starting point for looking at a range of factors which influence the gatekeeping process is Maletzke's Model of the mass media. It leads us to consider not only questions such as news values, but also theories of personality and so on.

Incidentally, you may have noticed that, in the graphic, N1, N2, N3 and N4 are identified as 'news items'. Doesn't that imply that 'gatekeeping' has already taken place before the gate is reached - after all, who determines that these are 'news items'? You might, in fact, also ask yourself what an 'item' is? What is a news 'event'? Is a plane crash the 'event' of the plane hitting the ground? Is it what happened before? How long before? Is it what happened after? How long after? These kinds of questions have no self-evident answer and remind us that a news 'event' is not simply 'out there' waiting to be reported. Somebody has to decide what the event is, how it is to be constructed.