By D. Charles Whitney and Lee B. Becker

'Keeping the Gates' for Gatekeepers: The Effects of Wire News

Proportion of items in various vice, human interest, national, political, categories found to have more international), McCombs and Shaw3 note effect than any shared news values a Spearman's rho of .64 between ranks of seven news item content categories sup- on choices by gatekeepers. plied by the wires and ranks of stories selected by "Mr. Gates," and a Spearman r An enduring concern in the study of of .80 for a replication study of the same journalistic practice is the degree to which editor 17 years later.4 news is standardized. A number of com- Gold and Simmons, in a study of 24 mentators have noted that various con- Iowa daily newspapers relying solely on straints reduce the variability of news one AP wire circuit for state, national and available to audiences. Most of these con- international news found overall coeffi- straints are tangible, concrete and rela- cient of concordance of .915 between ranks tively well documented, such as time, of proportions of content supplied by the 'hews hole," or space, money, standard- wire service and ranks of proportion of ized sources, organizational policy and content used by the newspapers in 13 craft norms.! Others are considerably less ' For time. scc Robert L. Jones. Vcrling C. Troldahl and J.K. apparent, and one such 'unseen" con- Hvistcndahl. "News Sclcction Patterns from a StateTTs-Wire." straint is the subject of this paper. JOURhALlSM QUARTERLY. 38:303-12 (1961): and Guido H. Two recent commentaries have reexam- Stempel 111. 'How Newspapers Use the Associated Press Afternoon A-Wire." JOURNALISM QUARTERLY. 41:38&384 ined White's classic 1949 "Mr. Gates" (1964): for space. KC Gaye Tuchman. Mflking Nr study of the news selection behavior of one rhr Con.\rrucrion of Rralir? (New York: Free P David Manning White. 'The Gate-Keeper: A Case Study in the Midwestern wire news editor.2 Both have Selection Of News." JOURNALISM QUARTERLY. 27:383-390 argued that more remarkable than White's (1949): for money. see Edward J. Epstcin. New:v.from Nomhrre (New York: Vintage. 1973): for standardiied sources. see finding that the editor engaged in idiosyn- Warren Breed. "Newspaper 'Opinion Lcadcrs'and Processo of cratic, subjective selections and rejections Standardiiation." JOURhALISM QUARTERLY. 32277-284. of news items was that the editor appar- 328 (1955); but for a contrary view. see Cuido H. Stempel 111. 'Uniformity of Wire Content in Six Michigan Dailies." ently unconsciously mirrored selections JOURhA1.ISM QUARTERLY, 3745-48. 129 (1959): for policy, already made for him by the wire services. see Brccd. "Social Control in the Newsroom: A bunctional Analysis," Socirrl Forcr.\.33:32635 (1955). and John Dimmick. Classifying the news available from the "The Gate-Keeper: An Uncertainty Theory." Journnltsm wire service into seven content categories Monograph No. 37 (November 1974): for craft norms, sec Tuchman. *Objectivity as Strategic Ritual." Amrrimn Journal (labor, accidents and disasters, crime and 4f ~lICl1JhR.V.77:wo679 (1972). Paul M. Hirrch. "Occupational. Or~aniiational and W D. Charles Whitney is research assistant professor in Institutional Modclr in Mars Media Rocrrch: Towrrd an the Institute of Communications Research at the Integrated Framework." in Hirrch. Peter V. Miller and k, (icrald Klinc. 4%..SmreRir.$ ./or C'bmmunicarion Hr,wnrch University of Illinois. Lee B. Bccker is associate (Beverly Hill,. CA.: Same. 1977). pp. 13-42. and Maxwell E. professor of journalism at Ohio State University. The MFComL and Donald I.. Shaw. "Structuring the 'Ilnsccn authors are grateful to the following graduate student Environment'." Journrrl ,I/ Cbmmuniwrron. 26: 18-21 (Spring members of the first author's spring 1979 xminar at 1976). Ohio State University for assistance in fieldwork and ' Op. ,"I., p. 21. data coding: John Liston. Louis Sanford. Paul Rolfes. ' Prul Snider. "'Mr. Gate%' Revisited: A 1966 Version crl the Jayne Rolfes, Joseph McKnight, Francis Raj and Joy 1949 Case Study." JOURhAI ISM QtlARlrRl Y. rr:419-427 Gray. (1967).

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Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 Wire News Effects on Gatekeepers 61 categ0ries.s Whitney, for example, recorded several Stempel, in a 1959 content analysis of such non-substitutions in story play in wire stories used by six small Michigan dai- news scripts in a large metropolitan radio lies. found agreement to be relatively low, newsroom.9 with only eight of 764 stories used by all A second and perhaps more plausible papers and with overall agreement at 31% explanation of the correspondence of stories across papers.6 His 1964 study of between wire copy provided editors and 21 metropolitan papers offers findings their editorial choices is that wire service more directly relevant to the research editors and news editors in media outlets reported here.’ Average use of AP A-wire share highly similar news values, and thus items by all papers was 22% ranging from a a finding that each select news items in low of 11% by a New York paper to 34% similar proportions in news content by the Rochester (N.Y.) Times-Union. In categories merely reflects similarity of the study period, the afternoon AP A-wire judgment. transmitted 97 Washington, D.C.- If Gold and Simmons and the “Mr. datelined stories (1 7% of all stories), 298 Gates” studies are correct, the wire services U.S.-datelined stories (54%) and 159 “set agendas” for the news play “mix” of foreign-datelined stories (29%). While the these various sorts of stories by numbers and proportions of stories bear- transmitting them in varying proportions: ing these datelines varied substantially, if 5% of what is transmitted is labor news, proportions selected by papers within cate- then 5% of what is selected should be as gories did not: 22% of the D.C.-datelined well. Also implied is that the proportions stories, 20% of the U.S.-datelined stories in categories are consistent across time. and 24% of the international stories were The proportion of news within the content selected by the papers. type becomes an added piece of These findings suggest that wire service information for editors to use in making editors, in broad terms, “set the news story selections, information that would be agenda” for newspaper news editors, by absent if equal proportions of news were suggesting the proper “news mix” and transmitted in each category. proportions within news categories such as An adequate test of an hypothesis that accidents and disasters, crime and vice and wire service editors’ assignment of items in human interest news. Two possible varying proportions to news categories explanations present themselves. The first influences other editors’ selections of a is that the structure of each day’s wire file, subset of those items in similar independent of proportions of content, proportions. then, would require influences editors’ selections. For example, variations in the wire file proportions “soft news” such as human interest stories assigned to various news categories. Where may be transmitted early in a wire cycle, the file is “stacked,” or proportioned much leading to a higher proportionate selection as news is routinely transmitted, editors’ for such early-moving copy, while “hard selections should mirror proportions news” might move closer to deadline.8 transmitted. Where the file is ”balanced,” While in an absolute sense editors might several outcomes, amenable to varying value later-moving stories more highly as interpretations, are possible: a) if news, they might not ordinarily alter selections mirror the “balanced” nature of previously-made news judgments. the “balanced” wire file, the outcome strongly supports the notion that wire ‘ David Gold and Jerry L. Simmons. %cws Seknion Patterns Among Iowa Dailies.” Public. Opinion Querrcrh editors “set the agenda“ for news editors; m425430 (IW5). b) if selections instead follow the * Op.

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 62 JOURNALISM QUARTERLY news values; c) if, however, selections in a vice, human interest, national, political “balanced” condition reflect neither the and internatibnal. Stories which could not “usual” proportions nor the “balanced” be reliably coded into a single category by proportions, this invites an “added infor- two judges were excluded. When the story mation” interpretation-that where the files were completed, items were proportioning approximates “normal” tentatively assigned to two decks. In the wire service: distributions in the categories, first, or “balanced“ deck, 14 items were it is followed, but when it does not, idio- assigned to each of the seven categories; in syncratic selection will apply. the second, or “unbalanced” deck, proportions of items were used Methods approximating those reported by Snider Editorial managers of the morning and for wire items read by “M r. Gates”: labor 5 evening newspapers in Columbus and items (5.1%); accidents and disasters, 7 Dayton, Ohio, and of the three Columbus items (7.1%); crime and vice, I1 items and two Dayton commercial television (I 1.2%); human interest, 14 items (14.3%); stations with regularly-scheduled news national, 16 items (16.3%); political, 21 broadcasts of 30 minutes per day or more items (21.4%); and international, 24 items were asked for lists of news employees (24.5%). All items were presented to a whose duties included selecting wire panel of five Ohio State University service news one or more days per month. journalism faculty and staff members with Fifty-two such editors were identified, and news editing experience for ranking on a 46 (88.5%) agreed to participate in the Likert-type 1-5 “newsworthiness” scale. study. Fieldwork dates were May 1-14, Their mean item rankings were then used 1979, and each editor completed a news to balance the overall “newsworthiness” selection task and answered a dozen within each category across the two decks. personal interview items. Administration A repeated measures counterbalanced was completed at subjects’ offices at the design called for the experimental subjects beginning or end of their working days, (the news editors) to select 21 stories, or and about 30 minutes was required of each. about the number of wire service items that Fieldworkers ‘were journalism graduate the largest newspaper in the two cities ran students. in an average day, from each file. The selection task was as follows: Two Fieldworkers decided by a coin toss dummy files of what the editors were told whether the first subject to whom they were lead paragraphs of wire service news administered the selection task would stories were printed on cards. Each file select stories from the “unbalanced” or included 98 news items, roughly the “balanced” deck, or file, first; in number of items that a content analysis of subsequent administrations, each field- a week of the Ohio AP newspaper wire worker systematically varied the order of indicated would be transmitted during a administration. Twenty-four editors typical day’s morning or evening selected from the “unbalanced” day first, newspaper cycle. About 275 items were and 22 from the “balanced.” selected from current and old newspaper files, from four-year-old wire service items Results and from fictionalized accounts similar to Of the 46 editors who participated, 38 the newspaper and wire items. Omitted (82.6%) were male and eight ( 17.4%)were were sports, state and local items, weather (;old and Simmcrn%.qi. (II.. found such catcgorio to he and stock market quotationsltland items of inbariahl!. applied hy ncwrpapcr\. which uxda fixed propor~ion of wch copy rcpardle.i\ofuhat uarccrmingin. Whltnc).qr. d., especially important current interest. pp X-V. ha, rclcrrcd In wch storm a* ”policy” \toric\, vnce the References to a day of the week were rule* for their rclccticin or rcjeation arc fixed and ni)nciintempor;tnel,u,: A ucather forcca%t for a particul;lr altered to “yesterday” or “today.” Stories rcpiiin or rlalc hm ii .I)or a 1.0 chance crl king \clectcd lor a were coded into the seven categories particular neu*p;tpcr. repardlr\\ cri 11, content on a gncn d;i mentioned in the “Mr. Gates” studies: and thc I)~~u-.lonc~mcra&c\ ~111.or uill not. he uwd h? particular cbcnlng ncuw\t. rcgardlc\r of uhether Ihcy arc up. labor. accidents and disasters, crime and diiun or unch;ingcd

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 Wire News Effects on Gatekeepers 63 FIGURE I Percentages of stories in wire files, and percentages selected by editors, in balanced and unbalanced - files in seven content categories. =denotes percentage in wire file. I ,\]denotes percentage selected by editors

1-A: Balanced Condition

26- -26 24- -24 22- -22 20- -20 18- -18 16- -16

Labor Accidents Crime Human National Political Inter- 6Disaster 6Vice Interest nat ional

1-B: Unbalanced Condition 26- -26 2 4- -24 22- 20- 18- 16- 14- 12- 10-

Labor Accidents Crime Buman National Political Inter- 6Disaster 6Vice Interest national female; 29 (63%) were newspaper editors the editors, and only seven stories (7.1%) with the remaining 17 (37%) working for were selected by as many as half the television stations. The editors spend a editors. In the “unbalanced” deck, only mean of 4.04 days per week editing wire two stories (2%) were not selected, and 24 news. They had been wire editors for a (24.5%) were selected by as many as half mean of 7.5 years with the most senior the editors. The most favored stories in the editor having been one for 28 years, and “balanced“ and “unbalanced” set were they had been professional journalists for a selected by 38 and 36 editors, respectively. mean of 13 years. A test for an order-of-administration effect Editors showed considerable variability was performed by computing 1-tests on the in their selections of 21 stories from both mean number of items selected within each sets of news leads: in the “balanced“ deck, content category by order of only six stories (6.1%)were selected by no ad mi n i s t r a t i o n (“ ba I a nce d” or editors, 19 (19.4%) were selected by25%of “unbalanced“ first). In none of the 14

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 64 JOURNALISM QUARTERLY TABLE 1 Proportions in Wire File and Proportions Selected by Editors in “Balanced” and “Unbalanced” Conditions

Balanced Condition Unbalanced Condition

% in wire % selected % in wire % selected file by editors file by editors Labor 14.3 11.0 5.1 5.3 Accidents & Disasters 14.3 20.7 7. I 7.3 Crime & Vice 14.3 16.0 11.2 14.5 Human Interest 14.3 11.7 14.3 17.9 National 14.3 22.2 16.3 19.8 Political 14.3 9.7 21.4 21.7 International 14.3 8.7 24.5 -13.4 100.1% 100.0% 99.9% w.wo comparisons was the t-value significant at suggest, this is not the case; the Pearson r is the .05 level (pooled variance estimate). -.41 (n.s.) Spearman r is -.33 (ns.). Thus an order of administration effect was Examination of the rankings of selected considered unlikely. stories in the “balanced” condition reveals Proportions of stories in the content no particular pattern of selection, categories in the “unbalanced” conditions although, as previously noted, it shows by and large serve as excellent predictors of that generally editors are least likely to editor selections within the categories; only select international news, the category of international news varies substantially news that in both White’s 1949 and from the proportion of incoming news, Snider’s 1966 “Mr. Gates” studies and international news was the lecist accounted for the highest proportion of favored category in the balanced incoming wire news. A final internal check condition. (Figure I). compared editors’ selections in the A Pearson correlation coefficient unbalanced condition with selections in between number of items incoming and the balanced condition; they were virtually number selected in the categories in the unrelated (Pearson r -.046, ns.; “unbalanced” set is r = .71 (pz.037, n=7); Spearman r = .07, ns.), indicating that the Spearman rank-order r is .62 (p = .025, selection influence was not closely related n =7). For newspaper editors the Pearson r to editors’ news values. is .71; for broadcast editors, Pearson r is Further Anrrlvsis. Newspaper editors .66. Since there is no variation in the were more likely in the balanced condition number of stories presented to the editors to select accident and diasaster, crime, in the “balanced” set. correlation human interest and international stories coefficients between number of incoming than were their television counterparts, and selected items in the “balanced” deck and the TV editors were more likely to cannot be computed. select political, labor and national stories. The notion that wire editors and news In the unbalanced condition, newspaper editors share similar conceptions of how editors and television editors are virtually many stories should be selected within identical in their selection patterns, except each of the seven categories can be tested that newspaper editors were much more by comparing the number of incoming likely to pick human interest stories (T = stories in the unbalanced set with the 2.34. 44 d.f., p = .02), and TV editors were number of stories selected by editors from more likely to select national news items. the balanced set. As both examination of Several content variations seem Figure I and reference to correlations counterintuitive and in some cases

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 Wire News Effects on Gatekeepers 65 contradictory to previous research. Becker newspaper and television editors than was has noted that broadcast newsmen are anticipated. more likely to report they cover Gold and Simmons, in a reexamination controversy and conflict than are print of content analysis data of small Iowa daily journalists," and Buckalew has noted that newspapers, finding a similar pattern, for television editors, a visuality news noted that "This similarity in patterns of determinant must be added to the list of news emphasis may represent similarity of traditional news elements judged by print news judgments. An alternative journalists.12 As such, then, the content interpretation is that the pattern of variations may represent structural emphasis of the wire service, represented variations not controlled in the ex- by the frequency with which various types periment. of stories are set out, is more or less uncritically accepted by these ...daily Summary newspapers for their own patterns of Forty-six Columbus and Dayton, Ohio, emphasis." This study undercuts the editors cooperated in a counterbalanced- notion that the wires and the editors design field experiment to test whether routinely share news values. It supports the proportions of news items in seven content idea that news as routinely transmitted in categories transmitted by wire services stock categories is indeed "uncritically served to cue editors as to proportions accepted" in newspaper and television which should be selected from these newsrooms. categories. Support for such an hypothesis Sprinkled through the recent research was found, but little support for an literature on the role of the mass media in alternative explanation that wire editors setting the political agenda are references and newspaper and television editors share to the nagging question of how the media an ongoing set of news values was found. formulate the agenda they present to their In addition, it was suggested that audiences.13 This study suggests quite international news was less valued by the strongly that the local media. at least, are influenced greatly by the decisions of a relatively few editors operating at the 1' Lee Becker. "Organimtional Variables and the Study of Ncwsroom Behavior." Paper presented to the International regional, national and international Association for Mass Communication Research, Warsaw. bureaus of the wire services. In other Poland. August. 1978. p. 10. words, the agenda being presented by the '2 James K. Huckalcw. *A @Analysis of Television News Editors' Decisions." JOURNAL.ISM QI1ARTEKI.Y. 46: 135-137 media audiences is influenced by the (1969). newsgathering procedures of the media 1' Maxwell E. MKombs and Donald I..Shaw."ThcAgcnda- and the relationships among the media. Setting Function or Mass Media." Piihlic Opinion Qiiwtrrlr. 37:176-187 (1972): Shaw and McComhs. The Eiiiertrnce of The local media are hardly actingalone in Ameriutn Poliricul I.uues (St. Paul. Minn.: Wet. 1977). shaping the political agenda.

RESPONSE TO PHOTOGRAPHS (Continuedfrom page 20) the way in which the reproduction process content of what they report and on the changes the connotative meaning of the interpretation of that content by message photograph. receivers. The variants of photographic Further, this research on the effects of style and structure are many. Relatkely still another "stylistic variation" on the few of these variants have been 5ub.iected perception of a photographic message to systematic study, and the author\ hope adds to our knowledge of the potential that readers of this report will he chal- influence which journalists have on the lenged to isolate other variants and to investigate them.

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