The Gatekeepers (9/27)

For 9/27

When I think of the term, "gatekeeper", I immediately envision a security guard standing outside a big, fancy, iron-detailed gate. But, in the world of media, a gatekeeper isn't necessarily that. A gatekeeper is anyone (or any company) that filters information and decides what the general public knows. Facebook, Google, and many news sources such as Fox and CNN are some of the more common known gatekeepers of mass media.

Recently, Facebook has been under heat for being too good of a gatekeeper. Former Facebook employees have come out and said that they routinely suppressed conservative stories from their trending news section. With the 2016 presidential election being right around the corner, this really upset people and brought attention to the influence media might be having on the ballot. Not only did these curators decide what stories appeared to be trending, but they also injected news stories when they deemed appropriate - whether it was trending or not. Due to Facebook's algorithm, it takes longer for big stories to make its way to the top of a newsfeed; in comparison to Twitter's instant visibility. Because these curators had the power to inject stories, they were able to release the bias version of the story that congenially aligned with their opinions. Once again, acting as a gatekeeper and furthering the news/media agenda.
(Here's an article going into more detail about this Facebook story: http://gizmodo.com/former-facebook-workers-we-routinely-suppressed-conser-1775461006)

The purpose of social media is to see what YOUR friends are thinking, saying, and sharing. The purpose of Google is to receive information and learn. The purpose of news is to understand the world around you by knowing about current events. I know many people tune into specific new sources to align with their congenial opinions, but their audience needs to be aware of the agenda setting bias that occurs. With Facebook and Google, the users of this site do not always realize the effects that algorithms have on the visibility of information. Overall, the general public needs to be smart about how they interpret media.

As one of the articles said, "Humans are very manipulable..." and because of this, it is important we understand the influence mass media has on us.