Crime reporters and Flashback : An interview study of media ethics in a new medium

The aim of our study was to examine Swedish crime reporters’ approach to the social medium Flashback. Our main focus was the crime reporters’ use of the medium Flashback, and attitude towards their own use of media ethics in relation to the medium Flashback. Flashback as a medium is not obliged to any media ethics and lacks a legally accountable publisher. In the search for information about committed crimes people tends to visit Flashback for the information that the traditional media cannot offer. In that sense Flashback challenges the foundation of media ethics today. That is why we found it interesting to study crime reporters in particular. The study used a qualitative approach and was conducted through interviews with eight crime reporters. We have used theories about media ethics, social media and participatory journalism to explore the development in the area and how journalists have adapted to this change. The result shows that there are journalists who use Flashback as a journalistic tool to find information, to save time and as a mean to keep up-to-date. And moreover, the study gives examples on how an online forum with anonymous sources can be used – like any other source, as long as you are source-critical