Compares U.S., Latin American, and Caribbean editors, examining their evaluations of world press problems to understand their underlying news values and perceptions of the role of the press in society. Finds that U.S. and Latin American editors see press freedom as an important world problem but differ on developmental journalism. (MM)

Since gatekeepers have the ability to inform the public about international affairs, it is important to understand gatekeepers' news values and perceptions of the role of the press in society. A study hypothesized that these problems could be subsumed under two dimensions, freedom of the press and development. In a mail survey, subjects, 118…

Although much is known about how governments and major media organizations stand on some world press problems, some important actors in the debate--small- and medium-size newspapers in the United States--have been ignored. The editors of these newspapers are gatekeepers who, like their counterparts on large elite newspapers, play a fundamental…