UNIT 4 INTERNAL GATEKEEPING
The media affected include both print and electronic media as well as the recording industry and distribution outfits. The personnel involved are mainly editors but may also include directors, producers, and publishers who exercise final responsibility for mass mediated products.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 4.1
In the spirit of “selfregulation”, write a twopage essay on “Self -Regulation” the Bedrock of Social Responsibility”, using internal gatekeeping by the mass media forillustration — and score yourself.
3.2 The Print Media Gatekeepers
Both in the more advanced countries and in developing countries like Nigeria, print media establishments have on their staff lawyers to guard against publication of materials that may amount to civil libel, seditious libel or invasion of privacy. Media associations such as the American Newspaper Publishers Association (ANPA) or the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the U.S. Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi, or the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and a few other groups like them exist to protect the interests of their members, and they have elaborate codes of practice to keep them from falling foul of the law, and to enable them to demonstrate the highest ethical standards of practice. Because of North America’s unique provision for press freedom, media gatekeepers are not obliged to accept codes of conduct issued by the respective associations but instances are very rare in which they openly flout the codes. Rather, they may fight to get the codes modified. Ironically in Nigeria where the print media gatekeepers are still governed by the codes issued by their associations and quasi-regulatory bodies such as the National Press Council (NPC), there have been reports of gatekeepers flouting the codes and worse still, refusing to honour the Council’s invitation to defend themselves against one complaint or the other. There is, happily, abundant evidence that, as our refurbished democracy is making an obvious headway, our professional outfits and associations are also gearing up to put their groups on a high pedestal of ethical professional practice.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 4.2
Do you think we in Nigeria have reached a stage at which individual or corporate media gatekeepers can afford to disregard codes of practice issued by their professional associations? Why, or why not?
3.3 The Broadcast Media Gatekeepers
The broadcast media are normally more wary of falling foul of professional codes of practice. Especially at the networks, internal censors guillotine many programmes which the producers have
“finalised” for airing. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which would be more or less the equivalent of our own Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), appears to be much more visible and more powerful than its print press counterparts such as the National News Council (NNC). But it sometimes looks as if the networks can do without NAB, in view of the authority wielded by their own internal censors, all in an effort to forestall undue external pressure— through self-discipline. The point is that the broadcast media are, everywhere at the centre of public interest, pressure and criticism, not only because of their greater visibility and the immediacy of their content but, more important, because the airwaves which constitute their primary capital, are public property and are very scarce. This is a fundamental fact that all broadcasting personnel must be trained (and I hope are being trained) to realise; but, just in case there are some who do not realise or simply forget this fact, there are internal censors to keep all internal gatekeepers on their toes.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 4.3
Write down for later discussion with a friend or tutorial colleague, a two-page reflection on why Nigerian governments tend to show greater interest in the performance of the broadcast media than in that of their print counterpart.
3.4 Gatekeepers in the Film Industry
Film has always been television’s “accomplice” in the court of public opinion. As we noted in an earlier unit, their “crimes” are myriad, and they include lowering of public taste through unabashed display of open sex, and assaulting the mental health of young people in particular through their frequent display and seeming justification of violence. In Nigeria, the list of culprits would no doubt include home-videos and, even though they may not be accused of displaying open sex, the apparent obsession with “fetish” and “voodooism” by some of the producing groups probably call for the same level of public concern. At the initial stages, the thought of having “our own” indigenous entertainment fare and cultural repertory probably drowned whatever public criticisms there were. However, I understand that, especially now that we have some fairly sophisticated home videos in the market, some of the bigger production outfits are voluntarily including personnel that may be seen as “internal censors” on their staff.
In the U.S., films have ratings, which amount to a pre-empting of public criticism, especially regarding violence and explicit sex. This way, the internal film censors tend to throw the ball into the parents’ court concerning the protection of their wards’ mental health. It is interesting to see individual producers or groups of these struggling to have the ratings of their programmes improved, and they succeed in many cases without any fundamental changes in the programmes. And that leads to our final observation about internal gatekeeping. As time passes and society changes, so do the moral standards that underlie the gatekeeping practices, especially in film and television. Thus in advanced as in developing countries, films and television programmes that would have raised a lot of eyebrows in past generations are now being shown without much ado.
4.0 CONCLUSION
Our brief examination of internal gatekeeping in the mass media establishments has shown that they fulfil their self -regulation requirements through strict internal gatekeeping. The approaches vary with media types and structures, but the end-purpose of all their internal gatekeeping is to pre-empt public criticism and restrictive government regulatory measure.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, we have looked at internal gatekeeping in the print and electronic media establishments. We saw that the print media have lawyers on their staff to guard against potentially libellous publications in particular. (In some, there is also the ombudsman whose work appears to be similar to but more general than that of the lawyer — gatekeepers). We also saw that the broadcasting outfits have censors who assess programmes that are ready to go on air. Films, we saw, have ratings by means of which they guide the public about which category of consumers a given film is suitable for. We concluded by observing that gatekeeping standards are subject to changes in accordance with changing times.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
You have just been appointed Chairman of Nigeria’s Film and Video Censor’s Board. Write down your inaugural speech before an assemblage of stakeholders.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Hiebert, Unguray, and Bohn (1991). Mass Media VI: Introduction to Modern Communication, 6th Edition. New York: Longman
Baran, S.J. & Davis, D. K. (2012). Mass communication theory:
Foundations, ferment, and future. 6th edition, Boston:
Wadsworth
UNIT 5 EXTERNAL GATEKEEPING