ABSTRACT
People sometimes use gatekeeping as a metaphor to describe how “news” is discovered and selected by the media, but this is an inaccurate conceptualizationinformation becomes news only when published or transmitted by a news medium, whereas the source of information begins with events. People perceive events as more or less newsworthy, which causes them to select and pass along information about them. This is as true for sources as for journalists. For Gatekeeping Theory, the event is “ground zero”—the point at which the entire process begins. This is not to deny the infl uence of history on gatekeeping; rather we recognize that the process of gatekeeping begins every time an event occurs. This is, of course, hyperbole in the sense that events never have an equal chance of getting past the fi rst gate. For example, our routine medical check-ups never make it into the major news media, unless we hold important social positions, such as president of a country. Still, the medical check-up is an event, and it is information about the event that enters or bounces off of gates. The history of our check-ups (for example, whether we were previously diagnosed with a cancer) defi nitely infl uences the whole process of selection, shaping, repetition, and timing.
