Mr. Korean American Gates: A Case Study of A Korean-Language Newspaper.

The article presents a case study which investigates the gatekeeping process and the gatekeepers' roles at a Korean American newspaper. Content analysis of the decision-making process of gatekeepers at a Korean-language newsroom has been employed followed by an in-depth interview with the local section editor called Mr. KoAm Gates. Study results show that if a news item does not involve any Korean/Korean American, it is three or four times more likely to be rejected by the gatekeeper than a news item that involves a Korean/Korean American. Gatekeepers at a Korean-language newspaper are more likely to concentrate on a distributive function than a feedback function. The ethnic newspaper's favorite topics are: crime, immigration/illegal aliens, and events/conferences. Each journalist's beat and the U.S. news media are the main channels of newsgathering. Gates sees his functions as a journalist at an ethnic minority newspaper to be assimilative and pluralistic.