<Li> Within any news organization there exists a news perspective, a subculture that includes a complex set of criteria for judging a particular news story--criteria based on economic needs of the medium, organizational policy, definitions of newsworthiness, conceptions of the nature of relevant audience, and beliefs about fourth estate obligations of journalists . </Li> <Li> This news perspective and its complex criteria are used by editors, news directors, and other personnel who select a limited number of news stories for presentation to the public . They then encode them in ways such that the requirements of the medium and the tastes of the audience are met . </Li> <Li> Therefore, personnel in the news organization become gatekeepers, letting some stories pass through the system but keeping others out. This then limits, controls, and shapes the public's knowledge of the totality of actual event occurring in reality ." </Li> <P> Gatekeeping as a news process was identified in the literature as early as 1922, though not yet given a formal theoretical name . In his book, The Immigrant Press, Park explains the process, "out of all of the events that happen and are recorded every day by correspondents, reporters, and the news agencies, the editor chooses certain items for publication which he regards as more important or more interesting than others . The remainder he condemns to oblivion and the wastebasket . There is an enormous amount of news' killed' every day" (p. 328). </P>

How is the role of gatekeeper being redefined