Whistleblowing
in mass communication. David M. White in an
article entitled ‘Th e “Gatekeepers”: a case study
in the selection of news’, in Journalism Quar-
terly, 27 (1950), applied Lewin’s idea in a study
of the telegraph wire editor of an American
non-metropolitan newspaper, whom he called
Mr Gate.
Today the model is only acceptable as a starting
point for analysis of the gatekeeping process;
indeed it is a handy exercise for the student to
build on the model by adding important factors
which White does not include, such as the orga-
nizational elements of the mass communication
process that constrain and direct it. Th e model
also indicates only a single gate and a single gate-
keeper, where in practice news passes through
many gatekeepers, offi cial and unoffi cial, direct
and indirect. White’s model should be studied
in relation to mcnelly’s model of news flow,
1959 and galtung and ruge’s model of
selective gatekeeping, 1965. See also topic
guide under communication models.
Wi-fi See internet: wireless internet.
Wikileaks A non-profi t-making website created
in 2007 by Australian Julian Assange and dedi-
cated to leaking information to the public which
has been withheld from it by governments, orga-
nizations and institutions. Th e website’s mission
statement says, ‘We believe that transparency in
government activities leads to reduced corrup-
tion, better government and stronger democra-
cies. All governments can benefi t from increased
scrutiny by the world community, as well as their
own people.’ Th at scrutiny requires information,
much of it highly embarrassing to the authorities
that have tried to conceal or suppress it.
Though starved of funding and with only a
small team of full- and part-time staff , Wikileaks
has commanded global headline news, for exam-
ple by making public the operating procedures
at the Guantanamo Bay US military camp. Th is
stirred a reaction from the US authorities which
prompted Assange to comment, ‘Th ey want me
dead!’
of parliament. Th is produces the simplistic equa-
tion – politics equals parliament, and can result
in a less-than-adequate coverage of political
events which take place away from Westminster;
this has been referred to as the ‘airless and inces-
tuous “Westminster bubble”’. See politics of
accommodation (in the media).
▶Mike Wayne, Julian Petley, Craig Murray and Lesley
Henderson, Television News, Politics and Young
People: Generation Disconnected? (Palgrave Macmil-
lan, 2010).
Whistleblowing Whistleblowers are most
usually individuals within an organization
- industrial, commercial, governmental, etc. –
who can no longer keep silent about practices in
that organization; perhaps because they perceive
them as unsafe, corrupt, dishonest or mislead-
ing. Almost invariably whistleblowers act out of
conscience. Th eir need for security is outweighed
by a higher-order need, to square behaviour with
a sense of values (see maslow’s hierarchy
of needs): they must speak out against the
perceived abuse, even though their ‘going public’,
by leaking information to the media, may result
in dismissal.
In the UK a degree of protection is off ered to
whistleblowers in the Public Interest Disclosure
Act of 1999. Substantial compensation may be
granted to whistleblowers who have suffered
victimization, or dismissal, as a result of their
raising concerns about fi nancial malpractices,
breaches of contract, or cover-ups generally.
▶Kathryn Bolkovac with Cari Lynn, The Whistle-
blower: Sex Traffi cking, Military Contracts and one
Woman’s Fight for Justice (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
★White’s gatekeeper model, 1950 The
existence of ‘gate areas’ along channels of
communication was identifi ed by Kurt Lewin
in ‘Channels of group life’ in Human Relations,
1 (1947). At such points, decisions are made to
select out information passing through the gate
areas. Lewin’s particular study was concerned
with decisions about household food purchases,
but he drew a comparison with the fl ow of news
White’s gatekeeper model, 1950