Case Study Proposal

Gatekeeping of Mainstream Media Digital News Name Institution Course Code and Title Instructor Date Gatekeeping of Mainstream Media Digital News Gatekeeping in mainstream media helps to ensure the production of news that aligns with the media code of conduct. Editors ensure that information released to the public is helpful. However, the growing use of digital media influences mainstream media and journalists to release news through digital platforms. Media houses and journalists discussing news through digital media raise questions about the concept of gatekeeping (Akpan, 2023). Journalists use their social media accounts to discuss news, which would be inconsistent with news released by the media houses they work for. In addition, social media users engage media houses and journalists to gather additional information which may be omitted or retracted due to gatekeeping principles. Journalists and media houses are obligated to give feedback, which may Therefore, journalists may share information on their private social media accounts that contradicts or has additional information from information released by their employer media houses. The objective of this research is to show the relevance of gatekeeping in social media posts by ensuring journalists implement gatekeeping when using digital media. Digital media gatekeeping should limit posting and commenting to align information with that from media houses. Although journalists may access information from many sources, they should not release information not released by media houses. The contradiction between media houses and journalists’ social media communication would create confusion to the audience due to a lack of clarity and consistency in news releases. Gatekeeping is important for regulating information released by media houses, requiring journalists to apply gatekeeping principles in social media communication. Literature Review The influence of digital media on mainstream media is important, but regulation is appropriate to maintain standards in production of news. The gatekeeping theory offers guidelines on how media houses should edit information to deliver sizeable, accurate, and useful information to their audiences. This theory ensures there are standard news production procedures by media houses to eliminate sensational reporting to increase audience. Digital media is overtaking mainstream media in news releases due to user-generated content. However, social media information is not dependable due to misinformation. Therefore, mainstream media, such as television, radio, and newspapers have an advantage in news releases due to verifiable and accurate information. Potins & Tahamtan (2021) investigate how hashtags can perform gatekeeping of information on social media. This research is due to the growing use of social media communication, creating the need for gatekeeping. The free use of social media allows to share information without evaluating the impact on other users. Therefore, the lack of gatekeeping in social media exposes users to harmful information (Aruguete et al., 2021). The research shows that hashtags are effective for gatekeeping because they act as information anchors for online users to sort information into specific topics. Hashtags reduce the information accessed, protecting users from unrelated information. Hashtags organize information in related topics or keywords, making it easier to access specific information. In addition, hashtags are important for protecting information through keywords such as #fakenews or #correctinformation that guide users in identifying the correct information. Therefore, social media users can collect specific and correct information by sorting social media information using hashtags. Therefore, hashtags are effective in social media gatekeeping because users can reduce information accessed from online searches. Salonen et al. (2023) investigated gatekeeping on newspapers’ Facebook page post-publication. Facebook is one of the social media sites with a huge global audience, influencing newspapers to pub...