Abstract

Journalists are bombarded with information from the Internet, newspapers, television and radio news, news magazines, and their sources. Their job of selecting and shaping the small amount of information that becomes news would be impossible without gatekeeping. It is the process of selecting, writing, editing, positioning, scheduling, repeating and otherwise massaging information to become news. Since gatekeepers provide a picture of the world for the rest of us, it is vital for scholars to understand the gatekeeping process and its impact on the reality presented to the public.