The Research Of Gatekeeper In WeChat Public Account

Gatekeeper theory has gone through more than 70 years which originated in the era of mass communication.Gatekeeper has become the dissemination knowledge and operation paradigm from academic theory from the concept to the evolution of theory which related to the theory of chinization,especially since the past century of rapid development in newspaper,TV,Internet in 90s of China.However,the gatekeeper theory has riched and developed in the age of mass communication.Just in few years,WeChat Public Account and News Application rise rapidly.Because of the great changes of communication technology,communication mode and media ecology,the theory appears a period of confusion.The most significant problem is the effectiveness of the gatekeeper theory and operability in the We-media age if it has any changes,whether emerge of the fake news,false information related to the absence of gatekeeper,and so on.The researcher is a full-time editor involved in the work of editorial content and operation in one of Xiamen grassroots WeChat Public Account and produced several articles which the reading quantity reach 100,000+ since September 2015.In this process,the operator of WeChat Public Account has become a new career who play the role of gatekeeper.This paper takes Xiamen grassroots WeChat Public Account as research object,therefore removed media WeChat Public Accounts and according to the activity and fields which the researcher in-depth interviewed 15 operators combined with the theory of gatekeeper to explore the characteristics of WeChat Public Accounts,the contents of gatekeeping and the role of gatekeepers.According to the in-depth interview of 15 WeChat Public Accounts operators,found that the gatekeeping mode in local grassroots WeChat Public Accounts and traditional media have similarities.Due to the different forms of media,the role of gatekeeper increased and showing unique feature of gatekeeping.Eventually found that WeChat Public Account operators inherited traditional theory while innovation the theory,the application of gatekeeping theory in WeChat Public Accounts have a profound impact on mass communication.