A gatekeeping lens: unpacking media’s coverage of the Venezuelan Crisis

Often in the global news cycle, there is selective representation, or prioritization of certain narratives over others. Gatekeeping theory depicts “how and why certain information either passes through gates or is closed off from media attention” (Shoemaker and Vos, 2009).

Venezuela, once a prosperous country, is a bold example of a humanitarian crisis that captured global attention. An estimated “fifth of the country's total population” have left the country over the last few years.

Although media sources have attempted to convey the complexities of the multi-faceted crisis, we can examine the presentation of it internationally, and uncover the biases that lace the media’s reportage, by using the ‘gatekeeping’ principle.

Understanding gatekeeping in media

Gatekeepers range from editors and producers to journalists. They hold the keys to open and close the gate to diverse voices and stories and can filter content consciously, or unconsciously, based on news value, audience preferences, organisations’ agendas.

Social media is a tool which can be used to gather news, beyond the scope of traditional gatekeepers. But, amongst a landscape of media restrictions and government censorship, there have been instances of “internet outages”, in Venezuela in 2019 – a brief censorship exploit (Thomas, Saldanha, and Volkova, 2021). Online content can be inputted and outputted by anyone, defying the traditional gatekeeping practice, and leading to misinformation.

Consider this video as an illustration of false information proliferating on social media. This creates problems for contemporary political conflicts, as it can lead to real-life consequences, like the imposition of sanctions in Venezuela.

Analysing coverage of the crisis and censorship of the press

One continuously exposed frame in the news coverage of the Venezuelan crisis is the political narrative, which in a way simplifies the crisis. It captures attention on an international media front, but can overlook the underlying socioeconomic factors, like, food scarcity, large-scale migration, and excessive inflation.

Western media agencies (specifically in the US) have come under scrutiny for focusing disproportionately on political developments while neglecting their impact on the people, like the humanitarian crisis it is leaving in its shadow. For example, much of the coverage from U.S. publications portray “the U.S. as a democratizing, stabilizing force in the region” (Nirere, 2020), when this is not the wide held belief.

Outlets that prioritise sensationalist headlines (“clickbait”) perpetuate stereotypes, reinforce pre-existing power dynamics, and marginalise real-life stories. For example, in January 2019 “a series of events in Venezuela captured news headlines around the world”, when protests began in favour of a new leader, Guaido, whilst the other side protested for support for Maduro (LaLonde, 2020).

As headlines are the main thing which a reader notices, they play an important role in affecting public opinion. A study was carried out on 3 different publications, from Spain, Colombia, and Cuba, to analyse how words can affect the way a situation is interpreted. It was concluded that the information highlighted in each “directly influences how events will be received and understood by society” (LaLonde, 2020).

Another study discusses how, in 2002, the media claimed President Hugo Chavez had “resigned after ordering a massacre” and then in 2014 “they presented a violent radical uprising aimed at overthrowing the government through terror as a peaceful protest against crime, hunger and government oppression” (MacLeod, 2018). News is constructed to fit an economic purpose, as “corporate shareholders have no interest in the veracity of the news, only in short-term profits” (MacLeod, 2018), so we must consider the external environments which surround gatekeepers too.

Venezuela’s lack of freedom of press has worsened over the years, affecting the way the situation is dispersed around the world. In 2023, Venezuela ranked 159th out of 180 countries in its World Press Freedom Index. This indicates a very dangerous situation for journalists – as the higher the value, the less freedom there is to distribute certain media topics.

Venezuela “leads Latin America with the largest number of imprisoned journalists and extreme government-led media censorship” (Pain and Korin, 2023). Due to this, and a lack of funds, many independent Venezuelan newspapers, and radio stations, shut down. But some independent outlets ensure journalistic reporting is maintained, like Efecto Cocuyo ("firefly effect”), which launched in 2015. It communicates daily news from the country and investigative reporting, to “inform and educate”.

Challenging the coverage distributed by ‘gatekeepers’

In conclusion, gatekeeping can shape media narratives, made clear by the news coverage of the Venezuelan crisis. We are made to question the reliability and trustworthiness of the media, as gatekeepers can “mislead the public through omission, unfounded assumptions, constructed narratives, and a lack of critical sources” (Nirere, 2020). The mainstream press determines what goes in and out of the international news cycle, playing a vital role in navigating complex events like Venezuela’s for a global audience. That is why it’s crucial we take a theory like gatekeeping and critically analyse coverage produced by a variety of sources.

_______________________________________________________________________________

References

LaLonde, L. (2020). International News from Differing National Perspectives: Spanish-speaking Newspaper Coverage of the 2019 Venezuelan Presidential Crisis Protests. Honors Theses. [online] Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu... [Accessed 22 Mar. 2024].

MacLeod, A. (2018). Bad News from Venezuela. Routledge eBooks. Informa. doi:https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351038263.

Nirere, S. (2020). ‘Underlying Principles of U.S. Media Coverage: A Case Study of Venezuela’s Political Crisis from January-July 2019’. Theses and Dissertations, [online] 730. Available at: https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu... [Accessed 25 Mar. 2024].

Pain, P. and Korin, E. (2023). ‘Keeping news alive in Venezuela’: Using social media as tactical media. Global Media and Communication, p.174276652311572. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/17427665231157282.

reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk. (n.d.). ‘It was a leap of faith’ – How a respected editor defied threats and hardship to create an independent news site in Venezuela | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. [online] Available at: https://reutersinstitute.polit... [Accessed 22 Mar. 2024].

rsf.org. (n.d.). Venezuela | RSF. [online] Available at: https://rsf.org/en/country/venezuela.

Sullivan, D. (2009). A Review of Gatekeeping Theory by Pamela J. Shoemaker and Tim P. Vos. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly.

Thomas, P.B., Saldanha, E. and Volkova, S. (2021). Studying information recurrence, gatekeeping, and the role of communities during internet outages in Venezuela. Scientific Reports, 11(1). doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87473-8.