Gatekeeping is Out. Curation is (Still) in.

Some links may help generate a commission that supports The Addition.

In a recent edition of the Semafor Media newsletter, Max Tani touched on the issue of gatekeeping a couple of times. “The debate about whether the legacy news media — to the degree it still keeps the gate at all — failed to adequately cover President Joe Biden’s decline is also at the heart of the bombshell book by Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper, Original Sin”, he wrote. There is also an episode of the Semafor Media podcast “Mixed Signals” called “‘Substack isn’t cool, gatekeepers are’, and other strong opinions from tastemaker Chris Black”. You get the idea.

And it’s an important idea to unpack. In era where everyone is or can be media, the gatekeeping ability of the old institutions is very clearly limited. In some instances, it is now entirely non-existent. I think it’s fair to conclude that the age of gatekeeping is largely gone. However, the age of curation, of tastemaking, very much has not.

Gatekeeping vs Curation

People still want to receive recommendations on what TV shows to watch, what articles to read and what clothes to wear. I do not think influencers, independent newsletter writers and YouTube content creators gatekeep in the traditional sense of the word. They are not deciding what information can be made public in quite the way Tani was describing. However, they certainly help make sense of everything that is out there.

And that is a great service. It would be boring if everyone did it. We need original reporting and ideas too. Curation does though have a place in our overstimulating media environment. From the likes of Morning Brew outlining the day’s business news, to beauty influencers showing us how to use their new favourite product, there is a group that have built successful business not by creating anything new, but compiling things in an accessible manner. I hope I do some of both here.

Gatekeeping might be over, but tastemaking and curation very much is not.