The Importance Of Media Gatekeeping In The News Media

1323 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Media influence on politics

A large amount of media coverage and controversy had struck Ferguson, Missouri after black eighteen year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by police officer Darren Wilson on August 9th, 2014. Brown and a friend had been walking home from recently robbing a convenience store when Officer Wilson stopped the two gentlemen for walking in the middle of the street. This is where the controversy begins. The only thing that is known for certain about the rest of the situation is that Michael Brown was shot and killed by Darren Wilson. Reading that last sentence, you might think that Darren Wilson should be convicted for murder, but that is only because I’m with presenting you with certain information. This presentation of specific information is what the news media does in order to shape the the opinions of their audiences. This essay will detail exactly how the news media uses techniques such as gatekeeping to frame the subjects of particular stories and agenda setting/extension to prime audiences’ …show more content…

Shoemaker and colleagues, gatekeeping is the “process by which the vast array of potential news messages are winnowed,shaped, and prodded into those few that are actually transmitted by the news media” (2001. p.233). In simpler terms, gatekeeping is the process in which the news media determines what should be considered news. Gatekeeping is especially important in understanding how political events reach the public (Denton and Kuypers, 2008. p.101). Media gatekeeping influences how audience view a particular subject, this is known as framing. Framing is described by Robert Denton and Jim Kuypers as involving relationships between qualitative aspects of news coverage, contextual cues, and how the public interacts with and interprets the news (2008. p.113). What this is basically saying is that framing is how the audience makes sense or interprets events. When the media frames an issue, they are telling the audience how to look at a particular

Show More
Related

  • Media's Take on The Beltway Sniper Attacks

    1233 Words  | 3 Pages

    This investigation analyzes how the reports of the Beltway Sniper Attacks were given (newspaper or television, etc.) changed the public’s reaction the amount attention that was given to this event. To be able to analyze this, I will look at different newspaper reports that were published discussing the different ways that the media took to reporting about this event. The varying reasons for differing reports will be explored; along with the different ways these reports affected American citizens.

    Read More

  • By George C. Edwards III, Martin P. Wattenberg, And Robert L. Lineberry

    1113 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “Reporting the News” by George C. Edwards III, Martin P. Wattenberg, and Robert L. Lineberry, the main idea is how the media determines what to air, where to get said stories that will air, how the media presents the news, and the medias effect on the general public. “Reporting The News” is a very strong and detailed article. The authors’ purpose is to inform the readers of what goes on in the news media. This can be inferred by the authors’ tone. The authors’ overall tone is critical of the topics that are covered. The tone can be determined by the authors’ strong use of transitions, specific examples, and phrases or words that indicate analysis. To summarize, first, the authors’ indicate that the media chooses its stories that will air

    Read More

  • Bernard Goldberg's Use Of Bias In Mainstream Media

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mostly gatekeeping bias is used in some of the big and important news but what gatekeeping is when releasing the story or keeping some information under the wraps. This occurs very often because media does inform the public the truth but decides to keep certain truth and not real ease it to the public. Another big type of bias in the media coverage bias which basically is when the media decides to cover a news but only talk about or covers certain parts to make their audience understand what they want the audience to understand. The media is suppose to tell the truth but now it the total opposite. Bias is everywhere and the media is no longer the helpful and trustworthy way to learn what is happening around the world. It been like this for a long time but no one has talked about bias because the media controls what happens and what gets to the public. Of course the media can't control when people in the media talk how bias occurs for example like Goldberg and knowing bias exist everywhere in the

    Read More

  • Sheila Gribben Liaugminas How The Media Twist The News Bias

    1330 Words  | 3 Pages

    Through manipulation and lies, media manages to modify objective news into biased news in order to convince the public of what the media wants them to believe. The article, “How the Media Twist the News”, by Sheila Gribben Liaugminas discusses the major influence that news has on readers based on their choice of stories and words. “How the Media Twists the News” has borrowed from multiple other texts such as the books like Public Opinion and Liberty and News, news magazine writers such as Ruderman, and news networks like CBS through Bias, A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News and CNN to make her arguments valid and prove that the news is biased and that it does influence readers significantly because of it.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Jackson And Martin Luther King

    994 Words  | 2 Pages

    The media can distort, delete, emphasize and de-emphasize points at will. Jackson gives credit to the media for inflicting determination in the African American public by the picture illustrated in the essay. Jackson believes that the media has more control than the law making politicians and the police. He considers what the media does affects everyone’s opinion.

    Read More

  • Media Coverage of the Duke Lacrosse Scandal

    1761 Words  | 4 Pages

    The 2006 Duke Lacrosse Case brought to light many of the issues and divisions currently plaguing our media sphere. This terrible act of injustice, which blamed three innocent Duke lacrosse players, Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans, for the rape of an African-American stripper, garnered extensive media attention that gripped America for almost an entire year (Wasserman, 3). Today, many scrutinze the media’s methods of covering the case, and deem that certain codes of ethics were not adhered to. Rather than remaining neutral, newspapers and TV outlets allowed themselves to “be used” by Mike Nifong, the former District Attorney for Durham and prosecutor of the case, by reporting only his version of the incident and investigation (11). While some newspapers like Newsweek and The News & Observer were relatively quick to recognize flaws in the investigation, many prominent outlets like The New York Times overlooked important evidence and published inaccurate information. In response to this, the Duke Lacrosse Case saw a huge rise in blog reporting, as many sought to uncover the truth. Conclusively, the media overstepped its boundaries when reporting on this particular case, demonstrating the compelling effects sensationalism has on the field of journalism.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Media Has Gone Downhill

    950 Words  | 2 Pages

    The media takes a biased approach on the news that they cover, giving their audience an incomplete view of what had actually happened in a story. Most people believe that they are not “being propagandized or being in some way manipulated” into thinking a certain way or hearing certain “truths” told by their favorite media outlets (Greenwald 827). In reality, everyone is susceptible to suggestion as emphasized in the article “Limiting Democracy: The American Media’s World View, and Ours.” The

    Read More

  • Media Portrayal Of African Americans

    733 Words  | 2 Pages

    Network news appears to convey more stereotyped impressions, a narrower range of positive roles for blacks than for whites. Representations of whites in network news are more varied and more positive than of blacks, not because of conscious bias, but because of the way conventional journalistic norms and practices interact with political and social reality. The findings raise questions about the journalist ability to represent the reality of black America while adhering to the professional practices that currently shape network news. Mainstream news portrayed African American as criminals, homeless beggars, welfare queens, ghetto-dwelling gang members, or drug addicts in American Society. Perpetuation of young black men as dangerous has been planted in the mind of American society not only by words and images projected by journalists but also in the mainstream news especially. Television particularly the news has the least positive representation of African Americans especially young males. When television became a house-hold item in the early 1950, this was a dark time in American History because there were huge racial tensions brewing in the south. The news show African American mostly young males getting abuse, hosed by police and attack by police dogs during a peaceful protest. It gives the negative images that African American was unlawful people and need to be dealt with swift action. Most of the time African Americans weren’t resisting but the news media depicted the images that they were and police were just doing their job to keep the peace.

    Read More

  • Nonviolent Protests And Social Change

    2103 Words  | 5 Pages

    According to Apel (2014), on August 9,2014, Michael Brown,18, an unarmed black man of Ferguson, Missouri was shot and killed by a white police officer named Darren Wilson. Considering the evidence, a grand jury decided not to indict Wilson. This sparked a nationwide protest. People came from near and far to protest the judge’s decision. It was no peaceful protest, it might have appeared to start out as a nonviolent protest, but like many protests, it quickly turned violent. People wanted justice and the people felt as though the system once again had felled them. Barnett (2014), a reporter says that after the shooting groups such as the “New Black Panthers,” demanded a rebellion against the officer who shot Brown. For a while the head of police was not going to reveal the name of the officer who killed the Brown, but after a series of violent protest, the head of police released the officer’s name. If violence was not used during the protest it would not have received worldwide attention. Furthermore, the public would not have known the officer who killed Brown. Due to the amount of attention the Michael Brown’s case received and because of the amount of passion the protestors had and how they were willing to die to get their point across sparked attention. Requiring many people who were in the political spotlight to

    Read More

  • Leopold and Loeb

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...plications, the public is able to share and obtain information before the morning newspaper is delivered. In addition, the media today continues to dramatize public events. Cases such as the Zimmerman Trial or foreign incidents in Ukraine remain headlines on news articles for months. Each source presents bias and influences its audience differently.

    Read More

  • Racial Profiling In The Media Essay

    1513 Words  | 4 Pages

    Media headlines play a huge role in how a person reading or listening to a report will view the suspect and the victim, The media will often do this because of the race of the suspect or killer. “Demonstrating the power that news outlets wield in portraying victims based on images they select” (Wing). The media can portray victims and suspects however they want and

    Read More

  • Police Brutality Essay

    980 Words  | 2 Pages

    To citizens, Darren Wilson killed Michael Brown of out racial prejudice. To police officers, Darren Wilson killed Michael Brown out of self defense. The media focused mainly on the citizens negative reactions, consequently labeling Darren Wilson as a racist murderer. The officer received numerous death threats, putting his life in danger. Ben Brumfield and Brian Todd, reporters for CNN state, “Fellow officers have been by [Darren Wilson’s] side day and night, as deadly threats have driven the former Ferguson police officer into hiding…” This is a prime example that media can ruin the lives of officers, as well as put them in legitimate

    Read More

  • The Hi-Tech Lynching of Celebrities and Politicians

    649 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lynching, which occurred most frequently in the southern states, resulted in the hanging, mutilation, and death of many blacks at the hands of a powerful white ruling class. While lynchings of this type have not occurred as frequently as in previous decades, it has morphed into a new form, a form that is arguably just as devastating. Instead of unjustly prosecuting blacks, this new form of lynching targets celebrities and politicians and media to accomplish what is commonly referred to as “hi-tech lynching”. The job of the media is to relay information to a general public.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Media Framing

    1164 Words  | 3 Pages

    News media outlets should not shy away from media framing. Media framing is how information is presented to the public, whether it is leaving information out or exaggerating the details. Erving Goffman was the first to bring forth the idea and theory of framing and defined framing as a “schemata of interpretation” that enables individuals to “locate, perceive, identify and label” occurrences or life experiences (Goffman, 1974). In his 1993 discussion of framing, Robert Entman offered a more thorough explanation: “To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, casual interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation.” (Entman, p.52).

    Read More

  • How Media Influences Public Opinion

    1625 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...r attention on selected issues on which the public will form opinions on (McCombs). Framing is an important factor by allowing the media to select certain aspects about the problem and then make them appear more important in the text, which results in enhancing the meaning or interpretation of the situation (Scheufele). Last, but not least, priming also played an important role in shaping public opinion. Priming works as the media repeatedly exposed certain issues in the public viewers. The more exposure an issue gets, the more likely an individual will recall or retain the information in their minds. With these three factors played out systemically the media, our opinions are constantly being influence and shape by them. As quoted by Walter Lippman, “what we know about the world is largely based on what the media decide to tell us” (McCombs).

    Read More

More about The Importance Of Media Gatekeeping In The News Media

Open Document