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

Jie Xin, Wan Ni and Zhiyuan Yu
Additional contact information
Jie Xin: School of Journalism and Communication, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China
Wan Ni: School of Journalism and Communication, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China
Zhiyuan Yu: School of Journalism and Communication, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 24, 1-17

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: social media; multi-channel networks; gatekeeping model; online platform (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/24/13710/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/24/13710/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:24:p:13710-:d:700563

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().