From Gatekeepers to Algorithms: Political Communication in Nepal’s Digital Media Era

Abstract

This paper examines how political communication in Nepal is being reshaped as digital news platforms shift the work of information filtering from human editors to algorithms. For decades, Nepali political communication passed through a small number of gatekeepers, mainly newspaper editors, radio producers, and television news desks, who decided which political events, statements, and voices reached the public. The rapid growth of internet and social media use, together with the political upheaval of 2025 and 2026, has weakened this traditional gatekeeping model and replaced it with a hybrid system in which algorithms, platform policies, individual citizens, and the state all compete for control over what political information circulates. Using a qualitative, document-based research design, the study draws on gatekeeping theory and the emerging literature on algorithmic gatekeeping to analyse Nepal’s digital news ecosystem, paying close attention to the September 2025 Gen Z protests, the government’s social media registration directive, and the continuing struggle over press freedom that followed. The findings show that algorithmic curation on platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok has increased the speed and reach of political information in Nepal but has also weakened editorial accountability, encouraged the spread of unverified content, and created new risks for journalists. The paper concludes that Nepal’s transition from gatekeepers to algorithms calls for updated media policy, stronger digital literacy programmes, and more transparent and locally accountable platform governance.