Gatekeeping theory originated from Kurt Lewin in 1943 to describe how individuals control information flow by allowing some to pass through a "gate" while blocking others. The theory was initially applied to newspapers but can also apply to documentary production by allowing filmmakers to filter out irrelevant information from research and footage to improve the quality and focus of the documentary's message.

1. GATEKEEPING
THEORY

2. ORIGIN
■ The word ‘gatekeeping’ was proposed by Kurt Zadek Lewin in 1943, who was a social
psychologist.
■ ’Gatekeeping’ is blocking unwanted information
■ The gatekeeper controls the social system
■ David MannWhite stated in 1950 that gatekeeping was initially used for newspapers
and found that there were rejected news items because of insufficient space, the
feelings of the gatekeeper or that the story has already been written.

4. RELEVANCETO OUR DOCUMENTARY
■ The gatekeeping theory can be applied to our documentary production because we
can filter out the information that we have researched or filmed that we find to be not
useful
■ This can improve the quality of the message of our documentary because we are
editing out the miscellaneous information that could not have relevance