News values and decision making : a study of gatekeeping at a medium-size newspaper

The term gatekeeper was brought into the field of mass communications in 1950 when White applied to the daily newspaper Lewin's thesis that social forces flow along channels and pass through gates governed either by impartial rules or by gatekeepers who make decisions on what passes through. This study departs from the usual format of surveys and statistical analyses and employs a participant-observer concept in which the researcher used his position on the copydesk of the subject newspaper to study firsthand the manner in which stories are chosen for Page One.

On-the-job quotes, recorded unobtrusively by the observer as his colleagues commented on their work, reveal a particular insight into the rationale used by gatekeepers as they moved stories to Page One or from Page One inside.

The researcher isolated six types of factors—traditional news values, personal interest of the gatekeeper, publisher's policy, perceived publisher interest, newsroom pressure and competition with a rival daily--which seemed to influence the choice of a story for Page One. For each day he worked for one year (245 issues), he categorized the Page One stories according to the manner he perceived their having been chosen. The results were then compared to the results of an earlier, shorter study at the same paper but under largely different gatekeepers. He proposed five hypotheses: 1) Perceived publisher interest and established publisher policy have major bearing on choices of stories for Page One; 2a) Concern for whether the opposition paper will use the story is often a determining factor and 2b) the effect of a joint operating agreement between the two papers was negligible; 3) Perceived reader interest is a strong factor in selection of stories for Page One; 4) Interests of the individual gatekeepers are strong factors in choice of stories for Page One; and 5) Newsroom pressure often influenced the choice of individual stories for Page One.

Using data in the form of observer's notes taken covertly over the study period, the researcher found that the evidence confirmed all hypotheses. Publisher policy and publisher interest accounted for 17.2 percent of the stories used. Personal interests of the gatekeeper was also high, 10 percent. Results also indicated that further study, especially in such matters as the news conference and the role of the electronic newsroom, would be valuable.