I. Introduction This master’s thesis represents study of female newspaper and magazine editors in Azerbaijan based on Western and Soviet definitions of journalism with explanation of local national features of this p

I.3 Editors and their functions

Initially, journalism research was only a part of a wider paradigm of sociological research that studied “discrete journalistic practices” that could be easily researched. (Barbie Zelizer 2004) However, after the World War II the situation changed and the first area to come into the focal light was the decision making process: scholars wanted to reveal how news actually become news. As a result a gate keeping theory was introduced in 1950. According to Shoemaker (1996):

“Gate keeping is the process by which countless messages are reduced to the few we are offered in our daily newspapers and television news programs. Gate keeping is such an essential part of the news gathering and dissemination process because every potential news story cannot be gathered, and, from among those items gathered, they all cannot be disseminated.”

Originated upon work of social psychologist Kurt Lewin (1947) the gatekeeping theory was applied to mass communication by Manning White becoming one of the first to be applied in journalism research paradigm. In his ground breaking research, White presented his week long observations of the story selection process by a single newspaper editor Mr. Gates, that showed that editor’s decision were subjective. White’s research and its critique paved the road for the development of the gate keeping theory by several other researchers (McNelly, 1959; Gieber, 1964; Bass, 1969; Dimmick, 1974).

Anthony Gieber (1956) studied 16 telegraph editors of Wisconsin dailies and questioned White’s thesis about influence of editor’s personal decisions arguing instead that news selection depended not on personal preferences of the editor but on such factors as deadline, newspaper production requirements and a number of competing news items. (Gieber 1964, p. 175).
However, fundamental modification to the gate keeping theory represents John McNelly’s research (1959) that expanded on White’s research and introduced concept of multiple gatekeepers. McNelly argued that White’s model (see table 4) incorrectly limits communication flow to one gatekeeper yet, before news reach editor for processing they have to pass through another gatekeeper – reporter that will decide to transform an event into a news story that eventually will reach the editor. Abraham Bass (1969) critique of White’s and McNelly’s research for their simplification of the gatekeeping process brought the “double action internal news flow” that presented gatekeeping process as flow unprocessed news into consumer ready product and differentiated roles of “news gatherers” and “news processors”. (Roberts 2005 : 9) The idea behind it is simple: without a journalist editor will have no news to work with thus making journalist important pillar in the process of selection or rejection of news.
As it was mentioned in the previous subchapter, for the first time Azerbaijani woman took hold of an editor’s chair in the 1911. During the Soviet period the trend grew with more women embracing socially active roles and filling important offices. However, all editors had to be practitioners of the Soviet journalism model that was effectively reinforced by their compulsory membership in the CPSU and the Union of Journalists of Azerbaijan SSR. Moreover, as we discussed earlier in the Western vs Soviet objectivity subchapter Soviet editor-in-chief was a high-ranking party dignitary and a member of party nomenklatura thus making him the most important cog in Soviet-journalism machinery that shifted balance in the gatekeeping functions away from line editors and journalists towards editor-in-chief that implemented the party’s ordain.
Despite, of transformation that the system took after the collapse of the Soviet Union the principle remains the corner stone in editorial houses that remain under management of the “old school” professionals. Peculiar fact about post-Soviet media system is that while in the West media publishers and owners usually are beyond the newspaper hierarchy in Azerbaijan it is not uncommon for them to appoint themselves to the post of editor-in-chief leaving everything else in hands of their deputy that acts as the éminences grises, i.e. unofficial editor-in-chief of a newspaper²⁴.
Speaking of editors and their roles in the post-Soviet media systems it is necessary to mention the inquiry “Ethical World of Czech journalists” where Eva Souhradova examined for the first time ethical values of Czech editors-in-chief and their deputies. The qualitative research involved 22 editors working in Czech newspapers, TV and radio stations and provided a typology consisting of two categories of editors: ethical idealists and ethical rationalist (Souhradova 2002). The following research has scrutinized 14 female editors of Azerbaijani newspapers and magazines with circulation above 1500 copies and also presents a typology.