G5 Doctoral dissertation (article)
Revising the understanding of gatekeeping theory : factors and practices of post-publication gatekeeping (2024)


Salonen, M. (2024). Revising the understanding of gatekeeping theory : factors and practices of post-publication gatekeeping [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Jyväskylä. JYU Dissertations, 776. https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-86-0142-5


JYU authors or editors


Publication details

All authors or editorsSalonen, Margareta

eISBN978-952-86-0142-5

Journal or seriesJYU Dissertations

eISSN2489-9003

Publication year2024

Number in series776

Number of pages in the book1 verkkoaineisto (103 sivua, 63 sivua useina numerointijaksoina, 4 numeroimatonta sivua)

PublisherUniversity of Jyväskylä

Place of PublicationJyväskylä

Publication countryFinland

Publication languageEnglish

Persistent website addresshttps://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-86-0142-5

Publication open accessOpenly available

Publication channel open accessOpen Access channel


Abstract

The dissertation examines the triadic relationship of news media, audiences, and social media platforms in the digital news environment. Through the theoretical lens of post-publication gatekeeping, it addresses what happens with news after its publication and how audiences and news media interact in a digital news environment. The dissertation combines three empirical sub-studies that explored factors and practices of post-publication gatekeeping. Article I examines the social interactional relationship between Finnish newspapers and their social media audiences on Facebook. Article II addresses the relationship between Finnish newspapers and their social media audiences and the role of visuality in social media journalism in Instagram context. Article III examines the role of audience data in Finnish newspapers’ editorial decision-making in Finnish newspapers. Qualitatively oriented research covered posts on Facebook (n=180) and Instagram (n=894), the online comments made on them, and newsroom interviews (n=9). Content analysis, digital conversation analysis, visual interpretation, tabulation of instances, and statistical descriptions provided complementary analysis. With this dissertation it is argued that today’s digital news environment demands talking about shared gatekeeping power and post-publication gatekeeping. In a digital news environment, news media are no longer the sole gatekeeper. They share gatekeeping power with platforms and audiences that iteratively influence each other. Multiple factors, such as audiences, social media platforms, and regulations (legal and ethical) shape the news and gatekeeping post-publication, as do social interactional and other practices.
In practice, the work suggests that news media and audiences jointly possess potential to apply conversational means of looking after the social media discussions taking place in news media’s social media spaces, to mitigate such negative forms of communication as hate speech. News media should consider the visuality aspect of social media platforms too as news takes on increasingly visual forms. From the legislation standpoint, the study shows that news media also should closely monitor the development and application of the EU’s ‘Digital Acts’. Furthermore, the dissertation contributes to the field of journalism ethics via practical social media-related recommendations for the Finnish Press Council, which revised its Journalistic guidelines in 2023–2024.


Keywordsjournalismethicsregulation (adjustment)newspaperssocial mediainteractionaudiencenews reportagevisuality

Free keywordsaudiences; Finnish newspapers; gatekeeping; journalism ethics; news media; post-publication gatekeeping; regulations; social interaction; social media platforms; visuality


Contributing organizations


Ministry reportingYes

VIRTA submission year2024


Last updated on 2024-03-07 at 01:26