Diss. Linköping : Univ.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Steven J. Smethers / This study describes and maps the process journalists employ when deciding issues of coverage, content, and treatment of news at community newspapers within the context of community standards. Much scholarship has been devoted to how journalists should make ethical decisions of news judgment in accordance with moral, ethical, and social responsibility theory. But little has been done in the way of describing and mapping how journalists – specifically, community journalists – actually make these on-deadline news decisions and how the concept of community standards plays into those decisions. Through the use of naturalistic inquiry methodology, in this case, a triangulation of qualitative depth interview methods – informant and ethnographic – within the context of society, this research describes the factors considered by community journalists when faced with decisions of news judgment, how that process takes place, and how and where community standards fit into that process. Data indicate that values and value-based moral and ethical reasoning are tempered by at least three considerations in the decision-making process: (1) how coverage and treatment will affect the journalist, (2) how coverage and treatment will affect others, and (3) the public instructional value, before being filtered through a screen of community standards prior to the final rendering of a news judgment decision. Furthermore, findings offer a base on which to construct a model of community journalism decision making, useful for study and discussions of ethical decision making among community journalism scholars, instructors, and students, and for its applications in practical situations by future or novice community journalists.

Excerpt: Ethics has always been part of a Mass Communication core, but I wondered what rethinking production courses. What if instead of teaching ethics separately, we considered an educated media-maker as one who makes ethical decisions at each step of the process--before taking a camera out of the case, before hitting record, before posting a single frame online? What if we taught video production this way in order to emphasize the power, responsibility and risk inherent in each choice.

Diploma thesis "Self-regulation Motives of Czech Journalists along with Routine Professional Decision" deals with regulators which show up in daily pofessional work of journalists at present, i.e. in period when this diploma thesis was written. Motives and influences of each regulator are examined in sample of three nationwide publishers - Mlada fronta Dnes, Pravo and Lidove noviny. Sixteen journalists participated in this survey, which was made in period from March, 16th 2008 to May, 5th 2008. This work is focused on Codes of Conduct (Codes of Ethics) of the surveyed publishers and explores their effects on professional manners of each editor. Furthermore, this diploma thesis is also about journalists personal professional limits which work as personal self-regulators. It investigates what is excusable for editors and what is not, within the survey. This diploma thesis answers on question which regulators influence editors and how editors react. In conclusion this work also deals with self-regulation aspects, if they are considered important by editors or not. This diploma thesis compares results among the above mentioned surveyed publishers as well as within the hierarchy of each publisher.

Diploma thesis Media ethics with subtitle The media presentation of selected news across the Czech media consists of two main parts - theoretical and practical. Both of them deal with the issues of media communication, presentation and media ethics. The theoretical part defines the terms and individual relations between them, describes the historical and technological development of the media. It also shows ethical problems of nowadays society. Last but not least, the theoretical part summarizes the methodological approach of the practical part. The aim of the practical part is to analyze the selected report and its presentation in various types of media. The author focuses mainly on media ownership, media type, message processing, etc. The result of the analysis should be a clear outline that would provide the readers of this diploma thesis with all background material to objectively evaluate the presentation of the selected news from the point of view of media ethics.

The aim of this study is to investigate whether different forms of funding affect the journalistic content set for media ethics. As part of this, analysis of whether Swedish Swishjournalists’ practices differ from established Swedish news media in the reporting of the Vetlanda-attack is included. The study is based on qualitative text analysis of journalistic texts and also uses elements of semiotic method. The analyzed content consists of 77 articles from two of Sweden's biggest newsmedia outlets and two Swishjournalists. Critical political theory is applied to the analysis as a theoretical framework. Our study has shown that there are differences in the news reporting of the examined media outlets, and that different forms of financing can have an impact on media ethical approaches. The results also indicate that there is a difference in objectivity between all participants, and that the Swishjournalists used a higher degree of opinion journalism than the traditional media. From a societal perspective, this study carries importance by analyzing new actors in the field from an ethical point of view.

Denna uppsats studerar podden Fredagspodden och dess sponsorer genom att göra en kvalitativ textanalys utifrån ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv. I uppsatsen undersöks huruvida det går att utläsa vilket innehåll som är sponsrat i podden. Hur diskuteras andra produkter och följer podden de lagar, regler och etiska riktlinjer som finns? Den kvalitativa textanalysen genomförs utifrån teoretiska perspektiv som dold marknadsföring, misstankens hermeneutik, parasocial interaktion och native advertising. Studiens resultat visar att det går att utläsa vilket innehåll som är sponsrat. Däremot kan detta variera i tydlighet mellan avsnitten och beroende på lyssnarens uppmärksamhet på innehållet. Vidare visar resultatet att programledarna pratar mycket om andra produkter de producerat och även produkter som deras eget produktionsbolag står bakom. I båda dessa fall visar studien att podden följer alla lagar och regler som finns men om detta överensstämmer med de etiska riktlinjerna kan diskuteras. I analysen förs en etisk diskussion som mynnar ut i en rekommendation om att lagstiftningen bör ändras och att det bör tillsättas en myndighet som granskar etiska övertramp i poddar. / This essay studies the podcast Fredagspodden and their sponsors by doing a qualitative text analysis with a hermeneutic perspective. The essay studies if it is possible to distinguish the sponsored content of the podcast, how the hosts discuss other products and if the podcast follow the laws, rules and ethical guidelines that exist. The qualitative text analysis is implemented with the theories stealth marketing, hermeneutic suspicion, parasocial interaction and native advertising. The result of the study shows that it is possible to distinguish the sponsored content of the podcast. However, the clarity varies depending on the episode and the amount of attention of the listener. The result also shows that the hosts often mention other products they have produced and also products that their own production has produced. I both if these cases the podcast follows all laws and rules but concerning whether this is ethically correct could be discussed. In the analysis an ethical discussion will be held which ends with the authors suggesting a change in the laws as well as the implementation of an authority with the mission to control ethical violations in podcasts.

Problem statement and purpose of the study Journalism is having economic issues, and the journalists knowledge of this together with tools for web analysis has increased the influence of the audience. The development of internet and the new media landscape has made several scholars call for changes in media ethics, but still not much has happend. The larger influence of the audience makes it interesting to examine how it views media ethics. Recently there has also been signs of an age segregation in media consumption where younger people are using new technology and platforms, which do not have an adjusted ethic system, and the older people are using the more traditional technology, which the media ethics originally was made for. Therefore this study also examines how the view differs in a younger and an older part of the audience. Method and material This study relies on three focus groups with participants from the swedish news audience. To be able to examine a possible age segregation in the view on media ethics, two of the groups consisted of younger participants and the third group consisted of older participants. Results The results of this study can be viewed as a sign of that the younger part of the audience is prepared to take a more individual responsibility for media ethics than the older part. This could for example be done by practicing source criticism. The results also indicates that the existing ethics system in Sweden is still supported by the audience

Denna uppsats behandlar publiceringen av bilder av döda på sociala nätverk. Forskningsfrågan är vad som karakteriserar publiceringen av dödsbilder på sociala nätverk vad avser just framställningen av bilderna. Den teoretiska bakgrunden är i huvudsak David Campbells teorier kring hur publicering av bilder av lidande och död styrs genom tre etiskt normativa regulatorer. Metoden är semiotisk analys och i tre fallstudier fastslås att publiceringarna är otypiska främst för att de förekommer medan det är mycket ovanligt att se publiceringar av denna typ i traditionella medier. Bilderna uppfyller inte rådande standard i medieindustrin vad gäller smakfullhet och anständighet. I övrigt följer bilderna i stort samma mönster för framställning som bilder av lidande och död i traditionella medier genom att spela på kollektiva förställningar om vilka människor som är värdiga vårt medlidande och inte eller genom att framställa publiceringen som befogad som en del i en uppmaning till aktivism i något syfte. Det framstår som om publiceringarna skett mer utifrån karakteristika hos just sociala nätverk än utifrån att framställningen är annorlunda än annars. Detta för att de sociala nätverken i stort saknar gatekeeperfunktion för publiceringar.