Gatekeeping & Agenda Setting

        Let's say you were one of only three hundred people to have access to a new cutting-edge multiplayer MMO RPG, the best game the world has ever seen. For a few years, you and two hundred and ninety-nine other players enjoyed the virtual world and all its groundbreaking features until access to this game was given to everyone else. Wouldn't you want to keep this stellar experience to yourself and a few other people you know would use it well? Wouldn't you want to control who could have it and limit it to only them? That is the fundamental concept of Gatekeeping, the act of controlling what and what not can be shown. This concept is usually used in the context of social media, such as wanting to block off full access to a specific makeup brand or favorite musical artist, but when it comes to the idea of control and limitation the truest and most prevalent example of Gatekeeping is with the news and media itself. 

          

        You may not realize it, as I surely didn't to the extent I know now, but the very foundation of news media itself is filtering. Filtering in this context means taking various stories/articles and choosing which one is "worthy" of publication. Which one is depressing, which one makes you smile, which one gets your heart racing, and most importantly, which one *says the right things*. While on the surface this seems to have no issue, as not a single media outlet could possibly cover every single piece of information out there, it isn't just using an educated system to decide which ones would be the most worthwhile for people to read, but instead in many cases a way to limit what is shown to only the specific news media's "agenda". Agenda is a word used a lot nowadays, usually defined as a narrative that someone wants people to know and care about, but this definition relating to the context of Gatekeeping has more complexities than previously realized. The Agenda of news media is often the only thing we have. For example, people who regularly use these sites which practice Gatekeeping as they have no other place to go, have no choice but to only read about the articles that say the "right things". 

        Being able to filter what articles and/or stories readers see is one of the most powerful examples of Agenda Setting, the concept of how communications media shape the problems that people worry about from Gatekeeping and filtration, as well as direct these eyes toward any issue they see fit with a specially made "priority system". Perception is the key word here, as Agenda Setting AND Gatekeeping in the context of news media is truly just the formation of perception in the eyes of their readers. From Gatekeeping which media is to be shown, it is easy for sites to create a narrative the public, as well as the government, will almost always find to be just as crucial of a problem as the news sites themselves. It's an issue that can very clearly lead to both corruption and/or false narratives that could have dangerous consequences if left unchecked. That is why it is important to broaden your reach to more than one or two sources of media and information, as you never know when the true extent of gatekeeping will show itself in you.