Media organization have no uniformed criteria for news selection. The very much recognized traditional news values notwithstanding, there still exists variables factors that determine what should be selected as news. Moreso, theses factors are more or less the exclusive of the individual media organization. these cannot be easily identified except through a systematic and a through research work on each of the media houses.
Therefore, this project seeks to determine the underlying factors that interplay in influencing “Gate keeping” decision in news selection. It aims at unfolding the factors that guide Mr. gate in selecting and discarding news stories in Imo broadcasting corporation (IBC) Owerri
The analysis of this project is presented in chapters and it goes thus, the first chapter deals succinctly on the general concept of gate keeping. The second chapter confines the literature review of some of the findings on literature review of some findings on gate keeping. The third chapter takes a look at the method of study. In this case both the participant/ observer and the self administered questionnaire methods were used to obtain the desired information
Chapter four is a discussion of the result and analyses of research work being carried out.
Finally is the conclusion and recommendation with a view to improving the quantity and quality of our news broadcast in chapter five.
The mass media is saddled with the function of information, educating, entertaining socializing the public.
Incidentally millions of events which are quite worth knowing do take place throughout the world, for example when the super powers hold armament talk, when commits suicide here and there, when earthquake occur and reoccur, when journalists are jailed or killed, when students demonstrate and countries fights for gaining independence opportunities are crated for news.
The broadcast media exists to inform. Educate entertain create symbolism, sets agendas – (Wolseley and Campell 1957: 45-51) unlike the print medium which majority deals on news only and it is written for the eyes and their target audience is for the elites. They usually manipulate the correspondents reports wire services to maintain but two- to achieve their aim. The reporter brings back reports of only a few events amid the thousands of occurrences that takes place everyday. They do determine what gets to the media house as news, therefore the are reported as the first gatekeepers in a media house.
However, media houses which comprises of print and electronic media do not project all the stories they received from reporters rather they take eh most suitable ones out of the many stories or news received for presentation. And the reason why they so is because of the absolute control of the government to the media especially the electronic media. The editors are solely responsible for this final selection, hence they are occupying a gate keeping position. The gate keeping role as used in this write-up in limited to that of editor alone.
Each day the media gatekeeper decides which news to carry and how much prominence to give each of them. it is already because of these pervading function of the media that hose who work as editors of socials responsibility far more than their counterparts in other field. Basically, “news is what news editors in print media allows to go bed that is being printed on the pages while news is broadcast or electronic media in what the editors in the news room pass down or allowed to be aired.
Moreover, the editor who acts as a gatekeeper is faced with the problem of determining how much weight he feels his story deserves and on how much detail, he feels he needs to tell the story.
Furthermore, an editor might also decide to slant a a story n\based on his predisposition about what he thinks the readers should know rather than presenting the hard fact of the repots especially ion the broadcast media. Very often he does this by omitting the part of the story he does not want the listener or the reader to know about then waiting the entire story down.
However, while much news becomes what the office has brought out as news, newsworthiness is still regard as an independent quality o autonomous events. What this implies is that nobody should expect the electronic media to broadcast every bit of a news report they get last it would be length, boring and costly use of their time where the print media writes extensively on a particular news but they make us e of space for advertisement. Therefore, it is important for once to appreciate the works of the editor who does the news selection and see it as a beneficiary to the audience rather than being antagonistic,
The controversy over what should be selected of news has always been a debate among people of different orientations. All the same, any news event must have an extra-ordinary quality to be worthy of being reported the audience. The more choice of such an event signifies that it is likely to be unusual, a departure from the mundane.
Although the above analogy sounds simple, but the work of caviling the earth like the thread of a ball of yarn and binding the same world together with invisible but nonetheless real thread is not an easy job. Put succinctly the job of choosing out of many rare events is not simple but a real thread which is capable of binding together is not easily identified when mixed with good looking but fragile thread.
Journalists and sociologist alike maintain that the world does not appear to them as a clearly structured entity. Put differently, the world Is not laid out before the editors as a landscape composed of transparently ordinary and extra ordinary occurrences. Therefore intelligence or high sense of reason very much comes interplay in the midst of complexities in the entire globe
Nevertheless, both editor and sociologist do admit that a few of its happening have become quite conventional because much news are political and rituals. It conveys an impression of and lessly repeated drama whose them are familiar and well understood. Their being so many brings us to the factors influences these editors or newsmen selection of the news selections. These factors includes such forces as edit ional policy, time or duration of the news bulletin ownership of he oregano, personal ideology orientation, condition of work etc. so al the aforementioned factors do affect moments induction making and this what at the end is disseminated as news,
Hitherto, the concept of news selection bang an unbeatable fact therefore aims at re-examining and re-evaluating the process of gate keeping and the extra news factors which form the work news judgment.
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