How Way-Finding is Challenging Gatekeeping in the Digital Age

This paper re-evaluates the relevance of the gatekeeping framework in the twenty-first century, arguing that in an age of digital journalism the gatekeeping metaphor has begun to restrict our study of journalism. Reviewing current research and utilizing a variety of surveys, case studies and theoret...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournalism studies (London, England) Vol. 18; no. 9; pp. 1087 - 1105
Main Authors Pearson, George D. H., Kosicki, Gerald M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 02.09.2017
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Case studies
digital journalism
Electronic newspapers
Electronic publishing
gatekeeping
Journalism
journalists
media organizations
News
news aggregators
online
Packaging
Publishing
Search engines
Social media
Social networks
way-finding
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Summary:This paper re-evaluates the relevance of the gatekeeping framework in the twenty-first century, arguing that in an age of digital journalism the gatekeeping metaphor has begun to restrict our study of journalism. Reviewing current research and utilizing a variety of surveys, case studies and theoretical work, the paper proposes a new framework. It argues that rather than online journalism studies focusing on the packaging of a news product by a news source (gatekeeping), it should instead focus on the paths taken by news users to individual stories via search engines, gatewatchers and social media (way-finding). To support this, five key areas of change are investigated: the increased capacity for storing and publishing news; new tools for news creation; increased use of aggregators and gatewatchers; competition on a story-by-story basis; and immediate audience feedback.
ISSN:1461-670X
1469-9699
DOI:10.1080/1461670X.2015.1123112