Manipulating an Interactive Era : Public Participation in Television News Broadcasting

Abstract: Purpose: To investigate how new technologies and new media possibilities are converging into older forms of mass media and examine the flow of cross platform communication and its implications with gatekeeping. Questions at Issue: How is gatekeeping involved in the process of broadcasting the internet discussion? How do television gatekeepers pre-mediate and script the online discussion? Is the convergence process allowing access for the participatory culture, making televised information less hierarchical? Theory: Gatekeeping controls the flow of information distributed through media to its audience. Gatekeeping is a selective process, using different mechanisms to filter information. Method: A semi-structured interview was conducted with an editor at the Swedish TV4 program Nyheterna. Additionally, through a content analysis proceeding the comments found on the TV4 forum submitted by participants of the convergence process were collected and compared to the comments broadcast in television. Results: The material showed that out of 319 comments, in total, 39 where broadcast; only 19 of the 39 comments could be traced back to the forum. The comments had also been manipulated in the convergence process. Despite new technologies traditional gatekeeping mechanisms control the flow of information. Summary: Further research needs to be done to fully investigate the impact of new technologies and explore whether their participants have influence during the gatekeeping process.