Gatekeeping is a slightly new term added to our lives. The term gatekeeping first used by social psychologist Kurt Lewin. However his first definition was about a family and a mom who decides about the nutritional habits of her family. In this case Mom is the gatekeeper. Also he instituted first theory about Gatekeeping. Obviously in these days we can only relate gatekeeping action with mainstream media and some other types of media.
What is Gatekeeping ?
The main purpose of Gatekeeping is to control the flow of information. Gatekeeper decides which content should move forward and which should not. If the material created has a social value and accepted by in social norms , Gatekeeper allows them to enter to the system. However we should achknowledge the fact that Gatekeepers can control the public knowledge and they have power to decide which material is suitable for the current mood of the society.
If we consider the current Gateekepers , we can say that they are mostly institutions. However there are also skilled and influencal individuals that can play the role as a Gatekeeper. We all saw the drop in the Bitcoin after JP Morgan's statement.
If we consider the current state of media We need to admit that Gatekeeping is inevitable. However in some circumstances gatekeeping is an huge oppurtunity for Public Relations. We need to acknowledge the fact that Gatekeeping is a powerfull status because these people decides what to discard and what to serve. However this gatekeeping process is mostly a routine in these days and they follow some certain rules.
White's Conceptual Gatekeeping Model
This is a simple and understandable model created by David Manning White and this is an acceptable model for gatekeeping however I think it would be appropriate to add some external forces in to gate mechanisms because when we consider the current state of the conventional media it would be more accurate.
Gatekeeping Mechanism in Steemit
When I first learned about steemit 16 months ago I was fascinated about this stakeholder thing. However I never got a chance to integrate myself with the community I was just a watcher. Recently I have more time to think about Steemit and comparing it to other conventional social media platforms. Because in conventional social media platform gatekeeping methods still vague and there isn't any preconception of what to do. In steemit I really like the fact that every invidual stakeholder can play his role in the duty of gatekeeping. Well Obviously if you own a lot of SP you play more active role as a Gatekeeper. However we need to accept the fact that we are all Gatekeepers .
Who are these Gatekeepers ?
Well I don't find appropriate the throw some names here therefore I'm going to explain this with some steemit terms.
Curation Guilds
Mostly these people are gatekeepers and they work to create healtier community , because of the current allocation of the SP they are helping new users and others to create more fair and healthy community. However they hold the power and they can choose which content will go for Trending section. For our current situation I find this mechanic quite impactful and beneficial however when Steemit reaches a lot of users and create an actual database with huge numbers . These guilds will lose efficiency. We can say that Curation Guilds are the selection mechanism of White's Gatekeeping theory
Steem Cleaners
If you are trying to abuse system , you are definelty going to face with this formation. This type of groups only interested in one Steem Cleaners mostly fight with Spam , Plagiarism and other stuff that is trying to abuse the system and considered as an obstacle to form a healthy social media platform. So we can say that Steem Cleaners are the discard mechanicsm mentioned in the Gatekeeping Theory
Individual Stakeholders
As I said everybody got a right to be Gatekeeper in Steemit's system however investors and the people with more SP play an active and influencal role in this subject. This is one of the best reasons to use your Steem to Powerup. Because in other social media platforms we don't have any power if we aren't a social phenomenon and some influencal internet persona. Steemit offers us to have an oppurtunity in this subject and play a role in Gatekeeping process.
Why this system is going to be Healthier ?
I really beleive this system is going to work fine in the future . Imagine Steemit reaching millions of users it is going to attract a lot of individual investors. This will provide a better and decentralized gatekeeping system unlike the other platforms. Lets consider the biggest media companies in the world. There are like 10 huge media companies that has power to do gatekeeping and maybe even some framing. Even in this form of Steemit we got a lot of whales playing role in this matter. It is definelty more than 10 and it is going to be much more higher in the future years of Steemit's. Because this is an owned media like --Google and it has to be living and breathing document. I really beleive that in future Hardforks and with the increase of userbase we can easily have a healthier platform.
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