
What is “gatekeeping”?
Kurt Lewin coins the word called “Gate keeping”. It’s nothing but to block unwanted or useless things by using a gate. Here the person who make a decision is called “Gatekeeper”. At first it is widely used in the field of psychology and later it occupies the field of communication. Now it’s one of the essential theories in communication studies.
Who is the founder of gatekeeping theory?
The theory was first instituted by social psychologist Kurt Lewin in 1943. Gatekeeping occurs at all levels of the media structure—from a reporter deciding which sources are chosen to include in a story to editors deciding which stories are printed or covered, and includes media outlet owners and even advertisers.
What is the concept of gatekeeping on social media?
The notion of gatekeeping on social media requires a different conceptualization than the one used by White (1950) to describe the work of mr. Gates. In the traditional gatekeeping literature, the gatekeeper is someone who guards discrete gates that determine which news does and does not reach the audience.
Is gatekeeping still relevant today?
Building on Lewin’s field theory, Shoemaker and Vos (2009) demonstrated how gatekeeping is still a valuable lens for understanding how news is created and circulated today, both as a theory and as a metaphor.

Where did the term gatekeeping come from?
Social psychologist Kurt Lewin first instituted Gatekeeping theory in 1943. Gatekeeping occurs at all levels of the media structure—from a reporter deciding which sources are presented in a headline story to editors choosing which stories are printed or covered.
When was the term gatekeeping coined?
Kurt Lewin (1943) coined the concept of gatekeeping to describe a wife's role as the person who decided which food ends up on the family's dinner table. By this example, gatekeepers are the people who filter in things desired and filter out the things undesired by certain criteria.
What is the definition of gatekeeping theory?
Gatekeeping. Gatekeeping is the process through which information is filtered for dissemination, whether for publication, broadcasting, the Internet, or some other mode of communication.
What is gatekeeping and Gaslighting?
“Gaslight” has become the trendy synonym for lying — particularly a strain of lying where someone denies an obvious truth — and “gatekeep” has become interchangeable with discrimination.
What's gatekeeping on Tiktok?
It describes the general feeling of superiority for enjoying certain media and contempt for any larger groups who dare to come across it. The word encompasses the attitude of people who like something before it goes mainstream.
What's another word for gatekeeper?
In this page you can discover 14 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for gatekeeper, like: , sentinel, guard, porter, go-between, watchman, sentry, warden, doorkeeper, hall-porter and ostiary.
Why is the gatekeeping theory important?
The role of a gatekeeper within journalism is of extreme importance in today's media environment. Gatekeepers ultimately craft and conduct what is being published to the masses, therefore they determine what is to become the public's social reality, and their view of the world (Shoemaker & Vos, 2009).
What are the elements of gatekeeping?
Factors of GatekeepingIndividual: Journalist who creates the report is the person who is the most influential to make the news article. ... Routine: The themes shown in the news and other media is always in a pattern. ... Organization: Media organizations have their own views, agendas and propaganda. ... Extra-Media: ... Ideology:
Is gatekeep an actual word?
Gatekeep definition (sociology) To limit (sometimes manipulatively, rather than directly) how much role another party, often a spouse, has in some task; for example, to limit how much one's husband can raise one's children. Gatekeeper.
What does the term gatekeeper refer to?
Gatekeepers are people or policies acting as a go-between, controlling access from one point to another. They may refuse, control or delay access to services. Alternatively, they may also be used to oversee how work is being done and whether it meets certain standards.
What was a gatekeeper in the Old Testament?
Often unnoticed, the gatekeepers of the temple guarded the entrance of the temple from defilements and impurities, faithfully administered the financial matters and maintained the temple property.
How old is the gate keeper?
GateKeeper (roller coaster)GateKeeperSoft opening dateMay 9, 2013Opening dateMay 11, 2013Cost$30 millionReplacedDisaster Transport Space Spiral26 more rows
Who developed the Gatekeeping Theory?
GateKeeping Theory. Kurt Zadek Lewin (1890-1947), was born in German. He was a great Psychologist and pioneer in Social Psychology. He developed the concept in the field of psychology called psychological “field” and “life space” in order to understand the human behavior and its important consideration of total life space.
What is the Gatekeeper theory?
Concept: The Gatekeeper decides what information should move to group or individual and what information should not.
What is a gatekeeper?
A gatekeeper is a person who controls access to something, for example via a city gate or bouncer, or more abstractly, controls who is granted access to a category or status.
Why do employers use gatekeeping?
Employers may use such gatekeeping methods to ensure competence for the job, or to accede to the pressures of organizations that award credentials to require specific credentials.
What is gatekeeping certification?
Various gatekeeping organizations administer professional certifications to protect clients from fraud and unqualified advice, for example for financial advisers . A news editor selects stories for publication based on his or her organization's specific criteria, e.g., importance and relevance to their readership.
What is the role of a gatekeeper in the world?
Various figures in the religions and mythologies of the world serve as gatekeepers of paradisal or infernal realms, granting or denying access to these realms, depending on the credentials of those seeking entry. Figures acting in this capacity may also undertake the status of watchman, interrogator or judge . In the late 20th century the term came into metaphorical use, referring to individuals or bodies that decide whether a given message will be distributed by a mass medium .
How Does Gatekeeping Effect People?
Gatekeeping can come in many forms; from microaggressions to open harassment and offensive behaviour . One of the most common examples of these microaggressions happen a disproportionate amount to women being asked by men to “prove” their knowledge on a particular topic they enjoy that is commonly considered to be predominantly “for men.” In this case, an elitist behaviour displaying itself through a patriarchal mindset.
What is gatekeeping in social media?
In the modern lexicon, the term “gatekeeping” refers to when someone takes it upon themselves to decide who does or does not have access or rights to a community or identity. This behaviour is commonly associated with the tribe-like mentality of online social groups and identities, and can spawn many harmful effects both on a personal and professional level.
What would happen if politics were dominated by gatekeepers?
Let’s consider the ramifications of gatekeeping on a global scale; what would happen if politics were dominated by gatekeepers, if democratic countries was discouraged from learning about the branches of the government or the law-making process, or if programmers and software engineers were unable to find online communities to learn from? It would be a disaster, no one would learn anything and technological progress would eventually come to a standstill all because a select few said “no” with no credentials to do so and exclude others from equal participation and fair treatment within those sectors.
Is gatekeeping toxic?
It should therefore come as no surprise that toxic workplace conduct can manifest if gatekeeping is not called out and responsibility dealt with beforehand. This can come in the form of making select employees and peers feel less valued than their counterparts, to bullying, harassment, making biased decisions on who you employ, or not paying certain employees as much as their counterparts. Historically, women, people of colour, and LGBT+ individuals have been the victim of gatekeeping in the workplace the most, being overlooked for promotions and suffering harassment that feed into gatekeeping tactics by patriarchal, hetero-normative, and Anglo-centric society expectations.
Why do people yell gatekeeping?
There are people in our community that want to believe that they have a right to access anything regardless of culture, status, or education. This is especially true for someone who is new or who believes that love and light is the only way. So, when a person claims to know something but then gets called out, they claim they are a victim of gatekeeping instead of owning up to the fact that they don’t actually know what they’re talking about. This is evidenced by the fact that, when asked for their training and/or education certification, there is normally no answer.
When is Gatekeeping 2020?
On the Topic of Gatekeeping. July 10, 2020. /. In the pagan and witchcraft – heck, even the spiritual community – the idea of gatekeeping gets thrown around a lot. Today, I want to discuss this topic with you and why it isn’t a concept that should be thrown around like salt during a cleansing.
Is there gatekeeping in witchcraft?
However, most times, the term gatekeeping isn’t even warranted. Let me explain. Within witchcraft, there are certain practices that are exclusive to certain cultures.
Who coined the term "gatekeeper"?
Kurt Lewin (1947), who coined gatekeeping, argued that gatekeepers operate in a complex field, in which the gatekeeper and its environment “have to be considered as one constellation of interdependent factors” (p. 338). There are many studies that show that journalists are often influenced by the work of their colleagues ( Cook, 2005; Crouse, 1972; Vliegenthart and Walgrave, 2008 ). A particularly strong form of interdependence occurs when gatekeepers operate within the same channels. For example, mr. Gates guarded the final gate before news reaches the audience, but before a news item arrived at mr. Gates’ desk, a reporter had already decided that an event was worth writing about. This direct interdependence of gatekeepers needs to be taken into account when we analyze who the most important gatekeepers of society are. Bass (1969) argued, for instance, that when we study the gatekeeping process by investigating individual news outlets, we tend to underestimate the gatekeeping role of news agencies on which these news outlets often rely for much information. This claim might be even more accurate now, as many online channels lack their own news-gathering apparatus and mainly seek to curate and reinterpret news that is already circulating ( Baum and Groeling, 2008; Welbers et al., 2018 ).
What is gatekeeping theory?
Gatekeeping theory addresses how the news messages that circulate throughout society are selected and shaped ( Shoemaker and Reese, 1996; Shoemaker and Vos, 2009 ). Given the huge amount of events that occur each day, and the virtually countless number of ways to describe them, why do certain news messages spread like wildfire while other are left untold? To understand this, one of the most important factors is to understand the people, organizations, and institutions that control the most far and wide-reaching communication channels, such as television, newspapers, and online platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The actors that control these channels can be conceptualized as gatekeepers, referring to their power to decide which messages may and may not pass through their channels. Perhaps the most vivid example stems from the seminal gatekeeping study of David Manning White (1950), who investigated how the wire editor of a local newspaper, referred to as mr. Gates, selected which messages were published.
Who said the gatekeeping concept does not adequately describe the work of many new participants in the news circulation process?
Bruns (2005) argued that the gatekeeping concept does not adequately describe the work of many new participants in the news circulation process. Influential blogs and individuals on social media often do not keep gates of their own, but keep watch of existing gates to create a curated hub for their audience.
What is gatekeeping in social media?
Gates. In the traditional gatekeeping literature, the gatekeeper is someone who guards discrete gates that determine which news does and does not reach the audience. In a strict following of this definition, it can be argued that there will not be any gatekeepers in the digital age because the redundancy of channels “undermines the idea that there are discrete gates through which political information passes: if there are no gates, there can be no gatekeepers” ( Williams and Carpini, 2000: 61). But this does not mean that gatekeeping theory is no longer useful. In debating the continued relevance of gatekeeping, we must cautiously distinguish between gatekeeping as a theoretical tradition and metaphor and remember that the metaphor is not set in stone, but serves as an interpretative tool ( Heinderyckx, 2015 ). In contemporary gatekeeping literature, a broader interpretation of gatekeeping is often used, which is more in line with the original use of the term by Lewin (1947). Building on Lewin’s field theory, Shoemaker and Vos (2009) demonstrated how gatekeeping is still a valuable lens for understanding how news is created and circulated today, both as a theory and as a metaphor.

Overview
A gatekeeper is a person who controls access to something, for example via a city gate or bouncer, or more abstractly, controls who is granted access to a category or status. Gatekeepers assess who is "in or out," in the classic words of management scholar Kurt Lewin.
Various figures in the religions and mythologies of the world serve as gatekee…
Gatekeeping roles
Gatekeepers serve in various roles including academic admissions, financial advising, and news editing, along with many areas of the fine arts. An academic admissions officer might review students' qualifications based on criteria like test scores, race, social class, grades, family connections, and even athletic ability. Where this internal gatekeeping role is unwanted, open admissions can externalize it.
Academic peer review
Peer review is a practice widely used by specialized journals that publish articles reporting new research, new discoveries, or new analyses in a specific academic field or area of focus. Journal editors ask one or more subject matter experts deemed to be "peers" of an article's author or authors to assess an article's suitability for publication in the journal. Notwithstanding the fact that the intent of peer review is to ensure suitability and editorial quality, issues of preference or …
Credentials
Credentialing is the practice of evidencing suitability for engaging in a profession or for employability through documentation of demonstrated competency or experience, completion of education or training, or other criteria as specified by a credentialing authority. The documentation provided by the authority are known as "credentials", and may be in the form of a license, certificate of competency, a diploma, a teaching credential, a board certification, or a sim…
See also
• Gatekeeping (communication)
• Principal–agent problem
• Porter (college)
• Gatekeeper's lodge
• Liminal deity