A reader’s guide to gatekeeping in the media and what’s in it for you

In popular usage, gatekeeping is withholding information to keep it exclusive, or controlling access to something. Gatekeepers control access to opportunities, privileges, resources or power.

For example, a woman might want to gatekeep the name of her favourite fragrance when others ask what perfume she’s wearing.

The perfume retailer might also gatekeep his sources to protect his business. Similarly, an aspiring advocate might tell you the Council of Legal Education is gatekeeping entry into the profession.

You might even hear people in TikTok saying “hot girls don’t gatekeep”.

In journalism, however, gatekeeping has a different meaning. It’s the process of selecting and filtering information before presenting it to readers, listeners or viewers.

This is done to package it into readable, accurate and relevant stories in keeping with the needs and cultural norms of audiences. In gatekeeping, editors may reject, restrain or modify some stories.

Gatekeeping, however, begins with a decision on what events or issues to cover. Too many things occur daily but it’s not possible to cover them all; so, it’s necessary to select what to cover. So the gate opens to let some stories in and closes to keep others out.

After decisions are made as to what to cover, reporters are assigned specific stories to report on. They, too, become gatekeepers; they decide what to include in their reports.

For example, during President William Ruto’s recent visit to Nyanza, many leaders spoke at his meetings but not every speaker was reported.

And those who were reported didn’t have everything they said included in the story, even though it might have been newsworthy. Reporters decide what’s worth reporting, what to emphasise in a story and what to include or exclude.

After the reporter is done with his story, it’s checked and edited for accuracy, writing style, readability and presentation. Several gatekeepers, including sub-editors and revise editors, are involved. In many large news organisations, there are a series of gatekeepers.

But gatekeeping isn’t perfect. Subjective judgement can’t be ruled out. At the same time, gatekeepers are influenced by external factors such as commercial, political and social pressures.

However, they’re mainly guided by the newsworthiness of the information, the editorial policies of their news organisation, professionalism and legal and ethical codes. They also operate within the constraints of deadlines and often have to make judgement calls.

There’s such a thing as self-censorship—when editors suppress information for fear of reprisals or deference to social or political groups. But that’s different from gatekeeping. Gatekeeping enhances news quality but censorship suppresses information.

Censorship is carried out by government officials and enforced by censorship laws. Gatekeeping is carried out by journalists, who select and filter information to better inform the public.

An example of censorship is the May 1967 ban of The Reds and the Blacks by a former US ambassador to Kenya, William Attwood. The government banned the book because “it is full of distortions” and was a threat to national security and public order. Another is the January 2018 ban on live coverage of Raila Odinga being sworn in as the “people’s president” amid an election dispute.

The role of a gatekeeper has been compared to that of a housewife who decides what food ends up on the dinner table. The gatekeeper decides what news menu will best serve the interests and taste of his audience. If the news menu is deficient, the audience will walk away.

In a world inundated with information, the gatekeeper tries to make sure his audience is not drowned in a sea of raw information. He curates the information, making sure it’s relevant, credible and true. Without gatekeeping, audiences would be so overwhelmed with information they wouldn’t know how to consume or evaluate it.

Gatekeeping has become increasingly important in today’s digital media environment, where almost everyone is a ‘citizen journalist’. There is much misinformation in social media platforms such as Facebook, X, TikTok and blogs that has not gone through traditional gatekeeping. The social media staple is opinion, gossip and unverified news.

People need to revert to traditional media for more reliable information as they are bombarded with clickbait stories and unverified news. Gatekeeping is needed now more than ever to uphold journalism standards and ensure truthful information.

- The Public Editor is an independent news ombudsman who handles readers’ complaints on editorial matters including accuracy and journalistic standards. Email: [email protected]. Call or text 0721989264.