1) Usually produced by formal and complex organizations ("professional communicators")

2) Organizations have multiple gatekeepers

3) Need a great deal of money to operate

4) Exist to make a profit

5) Have a great deal of competition

2) Gatekeepers

Any person or group that has control over the message

All "mass communications" organizations have multiple gatekeepers.

In Film and TV, on the national level, Directors, Producers, Editors, "standards and practices," and financial backers all influence control.

In print, you have multiple editors, publishers, sales staff, and advertisers exerting control.

In local TV and radio, you have station management, advertisers, and legal controls.

In the recording industry, you have the record companies, managers, producers, sound engineers, and marketing staff influencing decisions.

Except for the Internet, which may or may not have gatekeepers.

Internet gatekeeping, in the age of anonymous comments and social media, may seem like an oxymoron. But, behind the curtain of "the Internet" are the same kind of large, for profit organizations that make decisions about traditional mass media.

"Since tech companies are private entities by law they have the right to take action on their terms of service. They can make choices based on the demands of their customers and the needs of the market. "

Click here to read "After Charlottesville, tech companies are forced to take action against hate speech" from Mashable.

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©David Laurence

Two pictures taken from the same event ran in two different newspapers. In one, frightened children cower before armed soldiers. In another, a woman pushes a soldier onto barbed wire. At each paper, a gatekeeper made a choice as to which photo to print. Do the photos tell the same story?

French television network "Canalplus" shows us exactly how a gatekeeper can create reality. Watch this television commercial carefully. You'll realize that there is no "truth" in the media, only pieces of information which can be manipulated.

It's even easier to manipulate photos. With the rise of the internet, digital manipulation of news images has increased. Some news organizations prohibit them. Others deliberately use them to enhance a point of view. So your choice of news media, and their attitude towards manipulating their audience, is critical.

Watch this video from the PBS Newshour, "Exhibit chronicles manipulated news photos".

As "The Other Parent" implies, gatekeeping is a highly complex issue. On one hand are social gatekeepers, like parents and the government. Their purpose is to restrict content which might cause social or individual harm. One example of this is the government's multi-year attempt to limit tobacco advertising.

"The FDA tried to restrict tobacco advertising in 1996, but the tobacco industry successfully challenged those efforts in court and argued that the agency has overstepped its authority. That laid the groundwork for a 13-year effort by public health groups to win passage of a new tobacco-control law."

Click here to read "New FDA rules will greatly restrict tobacco advertising and sales".

Industry gatekeepers operate under many motives. They work as voluntary social gatekeepers to prevent more oppressive government regulation. That's why you have voluntary movie, TV, and video game ratings.

They also work to preserve the "integrity" of an industry. So some news organizations have gatekeepers to ensure the accuracy of their reporting.

However, the purpose of business is to make money. So gatekeeping must be balanced with business objectives. Some news organizations are less concerned about "integrity" than income, so they use fewer gatekeepers or gatekeepers who are less strict.

What happens when gatekeepers work in the best interest of the business and not the public? Sometimes both the business and the public are harmed.

All of the stories in the article below were reported by "news media" as real. None were.

Click here to read "Here Are 50 Of The Biggest Fake News Hits On Facebook From 2016".