Gatekeeping and Drawbridging?

Gatekeeping and Drawbridging?

My opinion of the media online and offline is the same: they are byproducts of the greed that breeds greed. It is hard to trust the media and their perceived truths because of a theory named ‘gatekeeping.’

If we start with an example of a local news reporter’s professional goals, we will be able to sum up the untrustworthy, conceited abuse of hierarchal texts, it models from traditional rhetorical public speaking, but without an immediate rebuttal from the audience. “In traditional public speaking the structure of relationship calls for one person to speak while many people listen. One person is, therefore, put in a position of advantage over others, at least for the moment” (Brummett, 43).

A local reporter’s ultimate goal is to reach the position of national news anchor, but the only way this position is acquired is by jumping through all the hoops of pleasing network affiliate stations and ultimately the sponsors. ‘If it bleeds it leads,’ is the best summation of contemporary news gathering because of their goal to be revered and feared at the same time.  This is how they become opinion leaders and ‘gatekeep’ public information.

It is hard for me to trust media online or offline, because the processes of gathering, filtering, and exposing content is all determined by advertising by way of operating revenue and/ or the public by way of Wikipedia. I’m skeptical about putting too much importance on wiki-type websites, because I’m entrusting my information gathering process with the public. I don’t know about you, but there have been numerous occasions where I downloaded a virus and lost a little more trust for the public.

Here is an interesting theory I like to call “drawbridging,’ if the show Family Guy was put on the air (chosen by a gatekeeper) and then taken off the air by the same gatekeepers, but dictated to be put back on the air because of public popularity, this is ‘drawbridging.’ What do you think, am I reaching?

Additional Readings:

Brummett, Barry. Rhetoric in Popular Culture, Third Edition. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011.

Local News does NOT Please Me

Local News does NOT Please Me

Today, I accomplished two things, in the following order: watched the local news and talked my self off a ledge from the depression that consumed me. Frustration, indifference, and general negativity were emotions I encountered separately and interdependently…and that was only the commercial break, but the newscast followed suit. When referencing, The Two-Step Flow of Communication Theory, referenced below you will realize the correlation between opinion leaders and on the larger scale media opinion leaders, and how they work together to ensure congruence.

Deciding which news station was the most credible was quite a chore. The following is criteria that I use when I base my decision on who is the hierarchal opinion leader when it comes to informing the public.

      I.         Must not: tease me about a story that is relatable; keep me on the line for the entirety of the news broadcast, then, disappoint me with a weak finish to the tease.

Hey big media, you don’t have to be a bully about everything, stop teasing me. The way newscasts and stories are teased, reminds me of a game of keep-away that I was once bullied into. In this story the ball is a metaphor for the news story and the bullies are the media. I like to play sports, so don’t tease me with a shiny new ball all afternoon, and then let all the air out of it before you finally toss it to me.

P.S. Big media also owes me lunch money for my entire 6^th grade year.

    II.         Must not succumb to ‘gatekeeping.’

Hello big media, it is I again. Can you not limit the stories you show because you have to save room for advertisers? I would like to be able to choose what I input…oh wait, maybe I should I just view it online. Also, if you could post unedited interviews online, that way I can hear the entire testimony of the eyewitness, that would be great.

  III.          Must always display happy ending or positive spin

Who am I kidding?

Those are the only three things I require when I am determining which news gathering sources are the most suitable to view. Am I so hard to satisfy? Also, is the two-step flow of communication actually a pyramid? Example, I selectively watch/ view/ input content and become an opinion leader, then by word of mouth pass on this information to networks, but what happens when the opinion leader becomes the media and expands his networks exponentially? Is this a pyramid, or is it cyclical?