Freedom from the Press? How anonymous gatekeepers on Reddit covered the Boston Marathon bombing

As citizen journalism continues to increase in popularity, social news sites (i.e., websites where users produce the content) are also gaining prominence on the Internet. Nevertheless, there is little research about how social news sites function. One such website, known as Reddit, has a growing user base of more than 100 million individuals and has played an important role in distributing information about critical and current events. Through examining a major incident where Reddit was acknowledged as an important informational entity, this study analyzed varying characteristics of content posted on Reddit in order to determine whether the website, as it claims, has “freedom from the press,” or if it follows gatekeeping practices that are similar to those implemented by traditional media outlets.