Manifestations of expert power in gatekeeping: a conceptual study

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to elaborate the picture of the relationships between information and power by examining how expert power appears in the characterizations of gatekeeping presented in the research literature.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses conceptual analysis for examining how expert power is constitutive of the construct of gatekeeper and how people subject to the influence of gatekeeping trust or challenge the expert power attributed to gatekeepers. The study draws on the analysis of 40 key studies on the above issues.

Findings

Researchers have mainly constructed the gatekeepers' expert power in terms of superior knowledge and skills applicable to a specific domain, coupled with an ability to control or facilitate access to information. The gatekeeper's expert power has been approached as a contextual factor that facilitates rather than controls access to information. The power relationships between the gatekeepers and those subject to gatekeeping vary contextually, depending on the extent to which the latter have access to alternative sources of information. The findings highlight the need to elaborate the construct of gatekeeping by rethinking its relevance in the networked information environments where the traditional picture of gatekeepers controlling access to information sources is eroding.

Research limitations/implications

As the study focuses on how expert power figures in gatekeeping, no attention is devoted to the role of social power of other types, for example, reward power and referent power.

Originality/value

The study pioneers by providing an in-depth analysis of the nature of expert power as a constituent of gatekeeping.

Citation

Savolainen, R. (2020), "Manifestations of expert power in gatekeeping: a conceptual study", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 76 No. 6, pp. 1215-1232. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-01-2020-0010