The Effects of Individual and Routine Forces in Gatekeeping on Student Journalists and Editors of University Newspaper Publications

Abstract

Most gatekeeping studies involve evaluating journalists and editors with years of media writing experience to determine how they are influenced by gatekeeping forces. While many universities publish a campus newspaper that is written and edited by the students, no research was found analyzing the impact that gatekeeping has on student newspaper publications. Therefore, this study attempted to measure the influence of gatekeeping forces on student reporters and student editors who work on university newspaper publications. Data was collected through a web-based questionnaire that measured the influence of individual and routine gatekeeping forces. A convenient sample size of N = 42 was used to gather information about how students perceived a news story's level of newsworthiness. Results of this study indicated that particular routine forces of news media actions and influences of newsworthiness were more significant than other forces and significant relationships exist among certain individual and routine forces. This study also looked at how news media job titles can determine the level of importance and influence of gatekeeping forces on news stories before reaching the final destination of publishing. Results indicated that significant differences exist in routine gatekeeping forces when compared to university student job title.