| This study is motivated by a change that is occurring in media production and consumption in mass media contexts that affects the Gatekeeping process of content selection. Given that classical mass media are increasingly incorporating interactive applications through user-generated content (UGC), the question that guides this research is: To what extent is audience autonomy is truly exercised by media companies? This question is posed in light of the processes in which interactive media bring tension to media companies with regard to changing levels of control with regard to aired contents, which previously were exclusively produced by professionals, and now are also created by audiences. Increasing production of non-professional audience-based contents thus provide various scenarios for audience autonomy exercised by media companies.;In contrast to the historical separation of producer and consumer roles, the new relationship between media producers and consumers has been theorized by mainstream and progressive analysts in terms of audience autonomy through technological affordances. One extreme of audience autonomy in this study is referred to as the user-centered perspective, according to which interactivity itself is claimed to enhance the user experience: The power distance between producers and consumers diminishes (Hayward, Simpson, & Leanne, 2004), content becomes more diversified (Carpenter, 2009), (Humphreys & Grayson, 2008)spontaneity increases (Ytreberg, 2006), user participation provides mobilizing potential (Rauch, 2007), and it offers community benefits (Kozinets, Hemetsberger, & Schau, 2008), as a result of which everyone can benefit from collective intelligence (Rodrigez-Ardura, Martinez-Lopez, & Luna, 2010). This view has also been criticized as illusionary (Comor, 2010). The more critical perspective regarding UGC is referred to in this study as the opposite side of audience autonomy-the media-centered perspective; this argues, in contrast, that user-generated content is integrated into programs to adhere to the programs' contents and agendas; users are used as unpaid labor (Reinhard, 2009) in a form of shameless exploitation (Terranova, 2000); UGC serves as a marketing tool (Siapera, 2004); and it provides a new business model (Humphreys & Grayson, 2008) in which the audiences serve a local commodity (Jian & Liu, 2009). Given these conflicting perspectives, a clearer understanding of the new relationship between media producers and consumers is needed.;This study examines the extent to which audience autonomy is exercised through Gatekeeping process in a convergent media environment where interactive technology places pressure on program gatekeepers to give the audience a larger voice and more central role than in traditional media systems. To address this question, a case study is conducted applying Gatekeeping theory to an interactive multimedia setting, a leading Italian radio-television-web station, RTL 102.5. The study uses two types of methodology: interviews with media producers and content analysis of UGC that was selected for broadcast or not. UGC in this study consists of Facebook messages that were posted on the programs' Facebook wall and SMS messages sent from the cellphones of audience members. Selected messages are posted during the program at the bottom of the television screen, as well as during web streaming.;The study found that RTL 102.5, as a type of classical mass medium holding a mainstream position, incorporates a range of types of UGC, however dispreferred content was found to be selected in smaller amounts, while the messages that adhered to the programming was more likely to be selected. Surprisingly, responses to the program were not necessarily selected, as well as political content was dispreferred, while messages of a personal nature, sports-related content were highly preferred. By observing message selection flows and distribution within a composite day, a more complex picture emerged. Messages differ not only in their flows there is restricted number of messages that can be aired at a given time. Message flows from SMS and Facebook differed as well.;In conclusion, RTL 102.5 incorporates variety of content types of their audiences, including personal messages which show a certain degree of autonomy that is given to the audiences, also, audiences' contents are not predefined, however, perceived differently by different announcers. However, at the same time, RTL 102.5 maintains the central position with regard to more serious contents, while gives voice for audiences to engage into inteprsonal fan-like exchanges. Finally, this study shows that there is a need to revise the concept of Gatekeeping in interactive contexts, since technological factors such as message cueing, alignment, selection of dyadic conversations become additional factors that contribute to the outcomes of the media product. Thus, in addition to the content type per se, Gatekeeping in interactive contexts needs to account for other extraneous variables, thus making content-based Gatekeeping more fragile. |
