Gatekeeper Model Research Articles

Tackling Hermeneutical Injustices in Gender-Affirming Healthcare

Abstract Previously proposed strategies for tackling hermeneutical injustices take for granted the interests people have in certain things about them being intelligible to them and/or to others, and seek to enable them to satisfy these interests. Strategies of this sort I call interests-as-given strategies. I propose that some hermeneutical injustices can instead be tackled by doing away with certain of these interests, and so with the possibility of their unfair nonsatisfaction. Strategies of this sort I call interests-in-question strategies. As a case study in when such an interests-in-question strategy ought to be pursued, I look at how to tackle hermeneutical injustices arising in the context of gender-affirming healthcare as provided to adults by the National Health Service in the UK. I argue that considerations of trust, privacy, and respect all support pursuing such a strategy. One way to do so, I suggest, would be by replacing the existing gatekeeping model with an informed consent model for the provision of gender-affirming healthcare. Considerations of hermeneutical justice can hence be added to the already-impressive case for undertaking this shift.

Visual audience gatekeeping on social media platforms: A critical investigation on visual information diffusion before and during the Russo–Ukrainian War

AbstractGatekeepers, including prerogative elites and institutions, possess multifaceted tools for controlling information. Historically, these gatekeepers have systematically instrumentalized visual information to shape audience perceptions in alignment with specific agendas. However, the advent of social media platforms has disrupted these power dynamics, empowering audiences through user‐driven visual information exchanges. This has led to visual audience gatekeeping whereby users act as audience gatekeepers by selectively disseminating visual content, thus shaping information diffusion. While this democratisation of gatekeeping holds considerable promise for user empowerment, it also presents risks. These risks stem from the inherently persuasive yet manipulative qualities of visual content, compounded by users' susceptibility to unconscious biases, especially during polarising events. Therefore, we critically investigated visual audience gatekeeping in the context of the Russo–Ukrainian War, specifically focusing on a Reddit subforum devoted to Russia‐related discussions. We find that visual audience gatekeeping operates within a paradigm that reflects the social reality the audience embraces. Audience gatekeepers disseminate visual information both to reproduce and defend an idealised conception of this social reality. Collectively, they produce a visual echo chamber characterised by low information diversity, which, in turn, reinforces and perpetuates the incumbent paradigm. However, heightened social tensions can trigger a paradigm shift and amplify the reproduction and defence processes, increasing the potential for the diffusion of more radical and extreme visual narratives. Based on our findings, we propose a theoretical model of visual audience gatekeeping, which has important implications for research on visuals, gatekeeping and social media platforms.

Public or private gatekeepers in non‐consensual debt restructurings in emerging jurisdictions

AbstractIn advanced jurisdictions, the choice of a non‐consensual debt restructuring is between a public or a private gatekeeper model where either the court or the licensed insolvency professional respectively approves a restructuring plan that binds dissenting creditors. In the United States, the only gateway is found in Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code 1978, which requires court approval and gives the debtor a significant say in the outcome. In contrast, in the United Kingdom, there exist four gateways, only two of which require court approval (scheme of arrangement and restructuring plan), while the remaining two (administration and company voluntary arrangement) give significant powers to the insolvency practitioner to decide on the outcome. In emerging jurisdictions such as Mainland China and India, due to path dependency and lack of institutional capacity, the court‐supervised model is chosen as the only or primary gateway to legitimise non‐consensual restructurings though the insolvency practitioner has an important statutory role. Using the two jurisdictions as case studies, this article argues that such a choice has several initial benefits but also leads to several problems, including delays in the restructuring, does not necessarily improve substantive outcomes and does not adequately address the shareholder–creditor and creditor–creditor agency costs. This article proposes that for debt restructuring that involves the sale of the business as a going concern, the private gatekeeper should be able to decide on the sale and the distributions following pre‐bankruptcy entitlements. Recourse to the court as a public gatekeeper should only be used for reorganisation proceedings.

Editorial Gatekeeping in Sports News During Prime Time Television in a Public Broadcaster

Abstract Introduction. Based on Shoemaker's model of gatekeeping, this study addresses two questions: What social representations of sports are promoted by the prime time news program of the public television broadcaster Radio Televisão Portuguesa (RTP)? How do editors assess sports news stories during the editorial decision-making process? Material and Methods. For this, we quantitatively examined all the sports content in the prime time ‘Telejornal’ daily news program of RTP during a trimester. Moreover, we studied the factors that influenced editorial decisions, by conducting naturalistic participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Results. Results indicate that facts of greater public protagonism, which cause a significant emotional reaction and are relatable to the public, are more newsworthy. The main constraints influencing the editorial decisions were organized in three co-dependent areas: Social System (macro level), RTP Organization (meso level) and Telejornal Newsroom (micro level). Conclusions. Findings contribute to a reduction in social stereotypes created by television broadcasters, and to sports actors optimizing their communication strategy.

12.1 Introduction to the Informed Consent Model: Ethical and Practical Considerations

As the understanding of gender variance has evolved from a disease-based model to an identity-based one, the approach of many clinicians has also shifted from an assessment model (sometimes called “diagnostic model” or “gate-keeping model”) to that of the informed consent model (ICM). Although such an approach would be in line with how much modern medicine is practiced in the United States, it has not been without controversy in this highly politicized field of medicine.

Trajectories towards affirmation: Gender identity in mental health services after the ICD-11

Depathologisation of gender diversity in the ICD-11 marks a shift in psychological services for transgender and gender nonconforming people. Even though the stipulated changes are only practically applicable ever since early 2022, a general move towards affirmative psychotherapeutic and counselling practice has been noticed ever since 2018. The present paper covers three main models of mental health care for gender minorities, namely the conversion therapy model, the transsexual gatekeeping model, and the affirmative model, in order to view them under a novel lens. Drawing on Science, Technology and Society Studies, the universalist presumptions and rigid gender roles of the traditional models are brought under scrutiny. Moreover, the itinerary reveals the need for situated narratives that encourage self-determination and renovate the therapeutic relationship as a means of self-exploration instead of an institutional control mechanism. Concluding, it is remarked that intersectional knowledge is crucial in compensating for micro-aggressive practices and dynamics historically promoted by psychologists and other mental health providers.

"Mental Readiness" and Gatekeeping in Trans Healthcare.

Gatekeeping refers to clinicians' strict application of eligibility criteria to determine a trans patient's "fitness" to engage in medical transition, resulting in significant barriers to gender-affirming care. Gatekeeping often uses "mental readiness" as a prerequisite to medical transition, which contributes to patient distress and systemic discrimination. Changing international trans health guidelines (the new World Professional Association for Transgender Health Standards of Care version 8) recommends clinicians shift from a gatekeeping model towards an informed consent model, which improves access to care. This commentary offers recommendations on how clinicians can reconsider existing "mental readiness" frameworks around medical transition to facilitate improved access to care.

Research on Ternary Interactive Gatekeeping Model for Multi-Channel Networks (MCNs) in Social Media Era

In the digital content industry, the emerging multi-channel networks (MCNs) have dramatically changed the ways of content production and distribution in sustainable social media. As a result, it also brings an unprecedented impact and challenge to the traditional gatekeeping model, which play a vital role to describe and explain the reporting process regarding news events. In this paper, we propose a Ternary Interactive Gatekeeping (TIG) model and then discusse the gatekeeping behaviors of MCNs from the aspects of content production and distribution, which intend to integrate the roles of MCNs, content creators and social platforms all in one. In this way, MCNs are not only the intermediary, but also undertake the responsibility of gatekeeper in social media, which exerts the important role in online pseudo-environments. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with 15 interviewees that consist of the advertiser, creator, and staff in MCNs and platforms. For the content production, the gatekeeping behaviors of MCNs consist of selection, shaping and withholding. Those contents that satisfy the profits and development requirements of MCNs are chosen. For the content distribution, the gatekeeping behaviors of MCNs consist of display, timing and repetition, which aim to realize the high media exposure for Internet users. It can be seen that MCNs’ gatekeeping behaviors are affected by the business-logic. By the proposed gatekeeping scheme, we intend to provide a new perspective for future research on information management of social media.

When the Patient Is Their Own Doctor: Roe v. Wade in An Era of Self-Managed Care

The Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade framed the abortion right as a right to make the abortion decision in consultation with a “responsible physician.” Under this framing, doctors were cast in the role of medical “gatekeepers” to mediate patient access to abortion. In the ensuing years, the doctor-patient relationship has become the site of restrictive abortion regulations in many states. This Article argues that Roe’s framing suffers from a foundational flaw: While the gatekeeper framing may have been appropriate in the Roe era when abortion was surgical and non-clinical abortions were potentially lethal, today, medication abortion—a two-drug non-surgical regimen that can safely and effectively terminate a pregnancy at home—renders the Court’s gatekeeper framing obsolete and no longer reflects the technological or medical realities of abortion-related healthcare. This Article reasserts the constitutional right of abortion and argues that advances in medical technology call for a new framing for the right as one of direct access to abortion that is not dependent upon the provider-patient relationship. This framing is better suited to protect the breadth and depth of the abortion right because it reflects the new technological realities of the practice of abortion and the promise of abortion care outside of the medical gatekeeper model which has been the focus of restrictive regulation and clinic harassment. It is a critical time to re-examine the gatekeeper framing of the abortion right considering the dramatic conservative shift in the Supreme Court that threatens Roe and in the midst of a pandemic which—in a complete reversal of the Roe period—renders in-person care by a provider potentially dangerous. In January, the Supreme Court’s first abortion decision since President Trump’s appointment of three justices, FDA v. ACOG, doubled down on the medical gatekeeper model by reinstating an FDA requirement that medication abortion pills must be dispensed in person by a provider. Re-examining the historical, social, and technological assumptions that animate the current framing of the abortion right is vital to thinking of new ways to frame and expand abortion access. Today’s online medical and pharmaceutical marketplace reveal that the Court’s confined vision of the abortion right was informed by the social and technological realities of its time, social and technological realities that no longer exist. If Roe’s cramped vision of the abortion right has run its course, as I argue here, then the movement to protect access to abortion must include direct consumer access to abortion. Empirical evidence reveals widespread use of self-managed medication abortion in the face of abortion restrictions. The shuttering of clinics as “non-essential services” during the COVID-19 pandemic and the unnecessary increased risk of clinic-based care for procedures that can be safely managed at home only amplify the need for direct-to-consumer access to abortion care. As state legislatures seek to make it easier to prosecute individuals suspected of terminating their own pregnancies, it is a crucial moment to reconsider the constitutional foundation of abortion and the right of self-managed care as a matter of criminal and reproductive justice and public health.

Participative Gatekeeping: The Intersection of News, Audience Data, Newsworkers, and Economics

The use of metrics and analytics is becoming pervasive in newsrooms the world over. However, there is a lack of consistent terminology in scholarly literature with regards to such practice and a dearth of studies that compare practice on a wider scale that prevents more holistic understanding of how audience data are being used on the newsroom floor. These issues are addressed with the development of a new participative gatekeeping model with three previously unidentified channels of gatekeeping specifically related to the use of audience data: promotional, for the type of short-term gatekeeping done on news site homepages that involves tracking real-time metrics to position content, often tied to traffic targets; developmental, or longer-term strategies that shape future coverage and are grounded in hypotheses of audience behaviour gleaned from analytics; and a third more porous channel of experimentation where such hypotheses are tested. These channels were observed in ethnographic research in six newsrooms in three different countries at media outlets with diverse sources of revenue: Norway’s public broadcaster, NRK; Canada’s subscriber-based national news agency, The Canadian Press (CP); and two local newsrooms working within larger media organizations, The Hamilton Spectator in Canada, and The Bournemouth Daily Echo in England. Through a sociological lens, this article distinguishes language to best document the complex processes interconnected with audience data, identifies similarities in practice that override media or revenue systems, and explores how the audience, through the participatory mechanisms of metrics and analytics, shapes newsroom practice.

A biophysical and structural analysis of the interaction of BLNK with 14-3-3 proteins

B-cell linker protein (BLNK) is an adaptor protein that orchestrates signalling downstream of B-cell receptors. It has been reported to undergo proteasomal degradation upon binding to 14-3-3 proteins. Here, we report the first biophysical and structural study of this protein-protein interaction (PPI). Specifically, we investigated the binding of mono- and di- phosphorylated BLNK peptides to 14-3-3 using fluorescent polarization (FP) and isothermal titration calorimetry assays (ITC). Our results suggest that BLNK interacts with 14-3-3 according to the gatekeeper model, where HPK1 mediated phosphorylation of Thr152 (pT152) allows BLNK anchoring to 14-3-3, and an additional phosphorylation of Ser285 (pS285) by AKT, then further improves the affinity. Finally, we have also solved a crystal structure of the BLNKpT152 peptide bound to 14-3-3σ. These findings could serve as important tool for compound discovery programs aiming to modulate this interaction with 14-3-3.

The Gatekeeper Model: patient’s view on the role of the family physician

The Gatekeeper Model: patient’s view on the role of the family physician

Digital gatekeepers and website visitors of the Acropolis Museum: revisiting gatekeeping theory in the cultural domain

ABSTRACT Gatekeeping theory has evolved in recent years to encompass new patterns and influences in a rapidly changing digital environment. The boundary between creating and disseminating digital content is increasingly blurred, as organizations adapt both content and services to the shifting needs of their audiences. In the current case study, viewing museums as content and cultural news providers, we examine digital gatekeeping influences that lead online visitors to museum websites. Recognizing vast changes in gatekeeping patterns, we revisit Shoemaker and Reese's hierarchical gatekeeping model, but in a cultural news context where consumers have evolved as gatekeepers and gate checkers. As we survey a multitude of data in this descriptive endeavor, we trace various gatekeeping nodes that lead users toward museum content.

Beyond the Gatekeeper state? Studying Africa’s states and state systems in the twenty-first century

ABSTRACTThis volume takes Fred Cooper’s model of ‘gatekeeper states’ – shaped as much by their international links as by their domestic practices – and explores the implications for our thinking about international relations in Africa and the wider international system. Because of their particular origins in the colonial system, African states have tended to be particularly sensitive to resource flows from external sources. Cooper’s conceptualisation thus provides an important starting point from which to explore the dynamic changes occurring within and between African states, and the international system since the turn of the century. This introduction first sets out the gatekeeper model and how it has been used in thinking about African states. It then highlights the ways in which changing economic and political dynamics in Africa may challenge this model, and the implications for our thinking about states. These themes are further developed in the subsequent collection, which deploys a range of theoretical approaches and empirical case studies to interrogate, challenge, and expand Cooper’s approach.

Modelling Contemporary Gatekeeping

Gatekeeping theory struggles to describe the rise of algorithms and users as information selectors in digital spaces. Algorithms and users may co-exist as decision-makers and reach high visibility through decentralised gatekeeping mechanisms. Classic gatekeeping theory is no longer adequate in describing contemporary news selection processes online and recent gatekeeping approaches at theory-building are isolated and have not been synthesised in a coherent gatekeeping theory. This theoretical paper addresses this issue and develops a digital gatekeeping model in three steps. First, four gatekeeper archetypes are identified that differ in access, selection criteria and publication choices. Second, gatekeeping frequently involves platforms on which gatekeepers operate. These platforms either apply gatekeeping mechanisms controlled by a central authority or rely on collaborations between many micro-level interactions to publish news. Third, a digital gatekeeping model is derived to model the four gatekeeper archetypes and their selection processes in relation to platforms employing collaborative gatekeeping mechanisms. This proposed digital gatekeeping model extends previous research on gatekeeping by synthesising classic gatekeeping theory with contemporary approaches and by providing a framework for future research on information control and dissemination.

ACTA as Media Gatekeeping Factor

This paper explores the influence of regulatory instruments in media content gatekeeping model and especially, the impact of ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) in online media industries. The author argues that both developments in the regulatory field worldwide as well as the emerging role of international agreements' negotiators on internet access and security issues are going to influence also the media gatekeeping model. The analysis shows that even an updated by the ICTs' evolutions media gatekeeping model should follow the developments on regulations' global debate related to online media and on their impact to the electronic and mobile (e/m) business models. The actions taken by EU institutions indicate the establishment of EU as a global negotiator in cultural industries as well as the global internet users' communities as an informal negotiator for online media issues.

The Emotional Gatekeeper: A Computational Model of Attentional Selection and Suppression through the Pathway from the Amygdala to the Inhibitory Thalamic Reticular Nucleus.

In a complex environment that contains both opportunities and threats, it is important for an organism to flexibly direct attention based on current events and prior plans. The amygdala, the hub of the brain's emotional system, is involved in forming and signaling affective associations between stimuli and their consequences. The inhibitory thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) is a hub of the attentional system that gates thalamo-cortical signaling. In the primate brain, a recently discovered pathway from the amygdala sends robust projections to TRN. Here we used computational modeling to demonstrate how the amygdala-TRN pathway, embedded in a wider neural circuit, can mediate selective attention guided by emotions. Our Emotional Gatekeeper model demonstrates how this circuit enables focused top-down, and flexible bottom-up, allocation of attention. The model suggests that the amygdala-TRN projection can serve as a unique mechanism for emotion-guided selection of signals sent to cortex for further processing. This inhibitory selection mechanism can mediate a powerful affective ‘framing’ effect that may lead to biased decision-making in highly charged emotional situations. The model also supports the idea that the amygdala can serve as a relevance detection system. Further, the model demonstrates how abnormal top-down drive and dysregulated local inhibition in the amygdala and in the cortex can contribute to the attentional symptoms that accompany several neuropsychiatric disorders.

Crowd(fund)ing at the gates? Toward a gatekeeper theory of dual value creation

Providers of financial capital play an integral role in the entrepreneurial process: as gatekeepers. This means on one hand, financiers provide capital to resource- constrained enterprises and make possible activities that otherwise would not occur. On the other hand, they also withhold funds from enterprises they deem unlikely to yield success and instead allocate resources to firms that appear to capitalize on promising opportunities in the marketplace. This theoretical paper explores this gatekeeper role and argues some resource providers are better at screening for economic value creation while others are better suited to screening for social value creation. This gatekeeper model is then applied to a novel new source of financial capital - crowdfunding - which provides an interesting context to explore the changing nature of entrepreneurial finance.

Как песни попадают на радио, или Что успех Рианны в чартах значит для исследователя инноваций. Рецензия на книгу: Rossman G. 2012. Climbing the Charts: What Radio Airplay Tells Us about the Diffusion of Innovation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

The review discusses Gabriel Rossman's monograph Climbing the Charts: What Radio Airplay Tells Us about the Diffusion of Innovation. The author analyzes how songs get on the radio. Describing this process in terms of diffusion of innovations theory, Rossman focuses on how innovations get adopted rather than who adopts innovations. He draws on the “gatekeeping model” of Paul Hirsch, who advocates a production of culture approach that sees popular culture as a flow process where cultural objects, including songs, move from the artists through cultural distributors and surrogate consumers to the ultimate consumers. Rossman concentrates on one element of this flow process - a channel from distributors (record labels) to surrogate consumers (radio stations). The result of his analysis is a detailed picture of the radio industry which shows us two main external forces driving airplay. The first one is corruption in music industry. The second force is a system of music genre classifications which regulates the process of evaluation of new songs by programming directors of the radio stations. Rossman’s findings are based on rich quantitative and qualitative data, first of all, on the cumulative airplay of more than a thousand randomly selected singles released between 2002 and 2007.

Gatecheckers at the Visual News Stream

Over the past 65 years, scholars have reframed the original model of gatekeeping to reflect the changing dynamics of news creation, distribution, and curation. In recent years, communication technologies have opened digital news gates to a proliferation of images captured by professionals and amateurs alike. Anyone with a camera or cell phone can shoot and distribute photographs and videos on the internet. Social media facilitates audience-to-audience sharing through tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, and Snapchat. This stream of visuals, along with the ease with which citizen journalists, bloggers, and tweeters can create and publish content, has changed the gatekeeping process. Few scholars, however, have addressed the impact that visuals have on the gatekeeping model, which was developed using text and broadcast stories. To address the changing role of the visual journalist and the audience, the authors conducted two studies. First, qualitative elite interviews with key visual decision-makers in Europe and the US provided questions for further exploration in the second study—an online cross-sectional survey of visual journalists who belong to three leading US organizations. The questions in this quantitative survey were also influenced by Shoemaker and Reese's hierarchy of influences and Bennett's multigated model. Findings indicate changes in the way visual journalists conceptualize their role and that of the audience. Based on these changes, this article proposes a new model of visual gatekeeping—the twenty-first-century visual news stream where “gatecheckers” select, verify, and curate visuals but no longer solely control their distribution the way traditional gatekeepers did.