The news gate is a process of filtering out the facts to produce news. It works by filtering out unimportant events that take place and placing them in the bottom of the news cycle whereas placing the important ones on top. News gate is a strategy to filter out everything that is not deemed newsworthy enough, it is dictated by the powerful a lot. The news gate tends to give more importance to situations the powerful are in rather than the regular people. Anyone can make a comment against anything and not become news, but as soon as someone powerful does that, it becomes a part of the cycle. The news gate prioritizes people on the positions they hold in society. It works by eliminating the events and actions that do not have major impacts on the society as a whole, and only focuses on what they believe will affect everyone on a large scale.
The process of filtering takes place in a manner where only those in control of the power dictate what becomes news. The news cycle is ridden with comments and remarks by the powerful and it forgets to take into account the reaction of the consensus. Journalists often operate on three spheres to make the news cycle.
The sphere of consensus, legitimate controversy and deviance. The sphere of consensus is where the journalist believes that everyone agrees to a certain thought process, and explanation taken for granted, the journalist does not go out of their way to explain the particular fact because they assume it is mutually accepted. During the 9/11 attacks in the USA, journalists were forced into a sphere of consensus, they reported in a manner where they had to assume statements as shared beliefs, forcing one narrative down. The sphere consensus now is difficult to achieve due to the multiple kinds of audience.
The sphere of legitimate controversy, is one in which journalists are asked to remain neutral, it comes with standard debate topics that include politics and political actions. The journalist is expected to remain neutral, objective and not promote one side. The sphere of legitimate controversy should be the case with all journalists, they do not need to get involved in the debate themselves but instead produce it objectively, giving out both sides of the debate. This was the case when earlier elections or events were reported. There was a degree of respect and mutual understanding between all factions.
The sphere of deviance is when the media starts dismissing certain ideas, point of views and actions and calls them out as laughable, ridiculous or even dangerous, it is when objectivity is put aside. The sphere of deviance is where we see the news cycle going. In the last and upcoming presidential elections of the USA, we saw a heavy polarisation of the media, and all sides constantly argue with each other. Instead of presenting the people with facts the media tends to display opinions as facts. Bringing themselves into the sphere of deviance.
Aishwarya Says:
I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.
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