The Importance Of Media Gatekeeping In The News Media

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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

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