The purpose of this survey was to find out how news journalists and PR practitioners in the public sector interpret and apply the concept of ethics in their professional lives. With the help of qualitative interviews, we have investigated the similarities and differences in attitudes toward the ethical concept of the two professional groups, and also how important the personal attitude and the “inner ethical compass” are for the ethics applied in the work. We have also focused on the importance of the regulated professional ethics of each profession. A total of ten professionals were interviewed; five PR practitioners in public administration, and five news reporters. All respondents work in the region of Värmland and has been selected through a snowball sampling. We have used qualitative interviews that have been recorded on tape. The material was then transcribed and analyzed based on the ad hoc-method called briocolage, where we looked for themes and patterns in responses. The material was then compiled and interpreted on the basis of the theoretical framework surrounding the study. As a theoretical ground for the study two literature reviews have been used; one on what the research in public relations say about the ethics for the PR professions, and one on the journalism industry. The results from these are described in the theory chapter. There we also take a closer look at the concept of ethics, as well as the theoretical ideals consequence neutrality and social responsibility theory. We also discuss the concept of objectivity from an ethical theory perspective, and present research on the ethics concept at the individual level. The study results show that the similarities in the interpretation and application of the ethical concept between the two professional groups are greater than the differences. The main difference noted is that the journalists seem to attribute the overall professional ethics of greater importance than the PR practitioners do. This may be attributed to the fact that the industry-wide professional rules are much clearer and well established throughout the journalism business, than they are in the PR industry. However, there are several more similarities. Both professional groups emphasize the concept of truth as central when it comes to the ethics of the profession; the information they send out must be true, whether you are a journalist or a PR practitioner. Both groups say that their own perception of ethics, the “inner compass”, is very important, even more important than the industry standards 4 when it comes to ethical considerations in the profession. Another interesting result is that all respondents except one, based on the interpretation of the concept of ethics, can consider switching to the other industry; thus go from being PR practitioners to journalists, and vice versa. The studyʼs hypothesis; that journalists are more ethical in their professional role than PR practitioners, is not confirmed. The conclusion is rather that the interpretation and application of the concept of ethics, is not dependent on whether you work as a journalist or PR practitioner. It depends primarily on their own interpretation of what is ethical. / Syftet med undersökningen har varit att ta reda på hur nyhetsjournalister och kommunikatörer i offentlig verksamhet tolkar och tillämpar etikbegreppet i sin yrkesvardag. Med hjälp av kvalitativa intervjuer har vi undersökt likheter och skillnader i förhållningssätt till etikbegreppet de båda yrkesgrupperna emellan, liksom hur stor roll den personliga inställningen och den ”inre etiska kompassen” spelar för hur etik tillämpas i arbetet. En annan infallsvinkel har varit att undersöka hur viktig den branschreglerade yrkesetiken är för respektive yrkesgrupp. Sammanlagt har tio personer intervjuats; fem kommunikatörer inom offentlig förvaltning, och fem nyhetsjournalister. Samtliga respondenter är verksamma i Värmlands län och har valts ut genom ett snöbollsurval. Vi har använt oss av kvalitativa djupintervjuer som bandats och där materialet sedan har transkriberats och analyserats utifrån ad hoc-metoden briocolage. Vi har i analysen letat efter teman och mönster i respondenternas svar, vilket sedan sammanställts och tolkats i relation till det teoretiska ramverk som omger studien. Som teoretisk grund för studien ligger två litteraturöversikter; en om vad forskningen inom public relations säger om etikbegreppet för yrkesgruppen, liksom en motsvarande kring journalistikbranschen. Resultatet från dem redogör vi för i teorikapitlet. Där presenteras också etikbegreppet närmre, liksom de teoretiska idealen konsekvensneutralitet och social ansvarsteori. Vi diskuterar också begreppet objektivitet ur ett etikteoretiskt perspektiv, samt presenterar forskning om etikbegreppet på individnivå. Studiens resultat visar bland annat att likheterna i tolkning och tillämpning av etikbegreppet de båda yrkesgrupperna emellan är större än skillnaderna. Den största skillnaden som konstaterats är att journalisterna verkar tillskriva de övergripande yrkesetiska reglerna större vikt än vad kommunikatörerna gör. Det kan antas bero på att de branschgemensamma yrkesreglerna är mycket tydligare och mer inarbetade inom hela journalistikvärlden, än inom PR-branschen, genom Spelregler för press, tv, radio. Något motsvarande, branschövergripande regelverk kring etik finns inte för kommunikatörerna på samma sätt. Likheterna är dock desto fler. Båda yrkesgrupperna framhåller sanningsbegreppet som centralt när det gäller etik i yrkesutövandet; den information man för fram ska vara sann, oavsett om man är journalist eller kommunikatör. Båda grupperna tillskriver den egna etikuppfattningen, den “inre 2 kompassen”, stor vikt och framhåller den som viktigare än branschregler när det kommer till etiska avväganden i yrkesutövandet. Ett annat intressant resultat är att samtliga respondenter utom en kan, utifrån just tolkningen av etikbegreppet, tänka sig att byta till den andra branschen; alltså kommunikatörer till journalist och vice versa. Studiens grundläggande hypotes; att journalister skulle vara mer etiska i sin yrkesroll än vad kommunikatörer är, bekräftas inte. Slutsatsen blir snarare att tolkningen och tillämpningen av begreppet etik inte är avhängt på om du arbetar som journalist eller som kommunikatör. Det handlar i första hand om den egna tolkningen av vad etik är.

The overall aim of this thesis was to examine the development of PR practitioner professional identity. The purpose was to examine how PR practitioner reason/talks about the image of the profession and how communicators use discursive tools to create their professional identity. The primary theoretical framework of the thesis is social identity and discursive psychology to understand how the professional identity is created. The chosen method was interview method where six interviews were conducted from the private and the public sectors in Umeå. The private organizations included are Punkt PR, which is a private PR agency and Polarbröd. The public sector organizations included are Umeå Kommun, Region Västerbotten, Polisen Nord and Vakin. The result of the analysis shows that the PR practitioner perceive that the image given by their profession is incorrect and largely based on ignorance of how their work look like. PR practitioner also see their profession as important for both the organization and the community. The thesis conclusions were that the PR practitioner build their identity by focusing on how and why they are important in society and for the organization. Another opinion from the PR practitioner was that the media often producing that a large part of the PR practitioner´s work is to deal with journalists and make the journalist's work more difficult, which the PR practitioner´s think is wrong.