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EOTO Terms and Concepts: Blog 10

 Gatekeeping



The Origin


The theory in itself came from Kurt Lewin in 1943. 


Definition: According to Gatekeeping Theory, gatekeeping is “the process of culling and crafting countless bits of information into the limited amounts of messages that reach people each day..”


In other words, gatekeeping is when the media only shows certain parts of an issue. This often creates a biased towards certain people, events, or things happening around the world.


The earliest trace of gatekeeping is 1922 through literature. This theory is used through communications, sociology, political science, and journalism.


How it is affecting our world

Gatekeeping is very real and at times scary to think about when it comes to our news sources. We have to often search for the bigger picture because it is not being given to us. We are only given partial explanations and biased information. America claims to be not like China but we are in fact starting to censor facts just because it doesn't agree with what the agenda is set to be.


As I've stated in previous blogs it is evident that the government controls mainstream media. Hollywood also has a big impact on what gets promoted and what doesn't. 


Journalism is no longer a non-partisan job. It is hard to come by a news channel that is not biased. Fox News is conservative while CNN is liberal. If you only watch one outlet and don't do your own research you will be blind to the other side of things. You would think that there would be a huge difference between tabloids and formal news but as we continue through the 21st century the line becomes blurred. 

I believe that the reason for it being biased comes from the audience these outlets want watching. They have to keep them happy to bring back views. In doing that though they are taking away their right to know the truth and influencing the way they make decisions, or how they view certain issues.

Mainstream media is no longer hungry for the truth, instead, they want to become brain-washed which is also what the government wants. The less we know and the more divided we are, the more power they have.


Examples of Gatekeeping


Throughout the BLM protests, we were only shown one part of the story, that was the riots. We did not see much of the peaceful protests. Instead, it was filled with the disasters, which in return make many people not support the protests and the movement. They made it seem like everything was caused by the movement when in fact the riots and protests weren't the same people.




We only see the bad side of Trump. Fox News will try and make him out to be the best guy but most liberal channels only focus on the bad. They don't bring out the full story. It shouldn't matter if he's a republican for not. Bring the full picture so we can then make our own opinions about situations. Even if I might not agree with Trump that doesn't mean I don't want to hear about EVERYTHING that he's doing whether it's bad or good.


How you have seen it in your life good ways and bad ways


I've seen gatekeeping affecting my life through social media. I used to believe everything an influencer or celebrity would say. Instead of me researching myself, I would just read articles that had no sources. It wasn't until I was a senior in high school that I started to research what mainstream media was telling me. This made me realize how flawed we are when it comes to sharing news. 


There are "fact-checkers" now for fake news on social media, but how do we even know those are real? How do we know they don't have a particular party they want to fall under? How do we know they don't have an agenda? Well, we don't and that's why it is important to do our own research.


Sources:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Qa7tYYHV2f2YX2J2_1J1npFquX8ehVMxPMg57Twk3wI/edit#slide=id.ga9a315bbc3_0_1

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Fn2QAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=gatekeeping&ots=z5xL7ddeIr&sig=fjzvKBNew56bafFp1J5xIu5zwBM#v=onepage&q=gatekeeping&f=false

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