Eight college and university Webmasters in 3 midwestern states were interviewed to explore their
communications practices and activities by applying a traditional mass media gatekeeping perspective. The
results suggest that gatekeeping theory is a valuable approach for studying individuals responsible for the
mediation of messages in the emerging online media. Webmasters' personal characteristics and attitudes were
found to influence their media content decisions, they share common values used to determine content and
design, and they face a variety of organizational and related constraints, some exclusive to Web gatekeepers in
an academic setting. Examples of gatekeeping activity and observations by the informants are presented, and
suggestions for future research are included.