We're All Gatekeepers

Who's a gatekeeper in this world of distributed information? Jeff Jarvis hopes that the citizen journalism is an antidote to professional gatekeeping. Others, like Andy Plesser think that PR pros are the new gatekeepers. My feeling is that all of us - press, bloggers, PR pros - can play the role of the gatekeeper.

Everyone has information they're holding on to. In the media's case, it's a scoop. In PR's case, it's a media embargo or exclusive. And in the blogger's case, it's information that they are among the few or even the one who's privy to it. So the debate shouldn't be over who is the gatekeeper or whether “gatekeeping” is dead. We all are gatekeepers depending on where the news thread starts. As long as there's news, there will be gatekeepers. Gatkeeping is just much more flat now. Anyone can join in if they have high-value information.

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