The effect of ethnic background on the gatekeeping process in Bahraini newspapers : coverage of the war in Iraq

This study, which may be considered the first of its kind to be conducted on Bahraini newspapers, attempted to provide an insight on the inner workings of these newspapers. The knowledge from this study provides a spring board for other studies to follow and venture into ethnic backgrounds and its affect on media coverage.The main focus was on the coverage of the war in Iraq by two Bahraini newspapers (Al Ayam and Al Wasat) and the gatekeeping process. Both newspapers exhibited a gatekeeping process which was influenced by their ethnic background. Editors of both Al Ayam and Al Wasat exercised gatekeeping on the stories that they published about the war in Iraq promoting their own ethnic group (Sunni or Shiite).The findings in this study presented a new characteristic that seemed to have a direct influence on the gatekeeping process. Ethnic background has never been associated with the gatekeeping process in news coverage. Results of the content analysis undertaken in this study reflected how the ethnic backgrounds of the editors in both newspapers did influence news selection and newspreference.Department of JournalismThesis (M.A.