Ethics in thought and practice : – a qualitative study in how editorial staff at studentmagazines reason about ethics.

Title: Ethics in thought and practice – a qualitative study in how editorial staff at student magazines reason about ethics. (Etik i tanke och praktik – en kvalitativ studie i hur studenttidningsredaktioner resonerar kring etik) Number of pages: 30 (37 including enclosures) Author: Bianca Gideback Tutor: Peder Hård af Segerstad Course: Media and Communication studies C Period: Spring 2010 University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University. Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this study is to explore how students that work at student magazines reason about ethics of journalism and how they transform it into practice. By identifying what circumstances in the context of the student magazine that can affect the work this study aim to see if and how this can affect how they conform to ethics of journalism in practical situations. The result will be presented in relation to a figure of the context of the reporter practice. The figure contains four different aspects that can affect the work of a journalist. These are ideals, values, conditions, and consequences. Material/Method: The materials consist of four interviews with the editors in chief of four student magazines in Uppsala. Two of the magazines are union magazines, the union of Uppsala economic students and the union of Uppsala law students. One is a magazine that belongs to Norrlands nation and one belongs to the Uppsala student union. The interviews aim to find out opinions and ideas the editors have about their own ethical approach. Main results: There is awareness about ethics and certain ways the editorial staff work with it, but it’s not always adapted to the actual work. Because of different reasons in the context the magazine is created in, the work sometimes get affected. Responsibility is one main thing that can affect how ethical they choose to be, and since the students often work voluntarily this can affect the work. The content of the magazine is not always so extreme and controversial so in some extent the magazines can afford not to be so ethical all the time. Keywords: Ethics of journalism, editorial staff, student magazine, ideals, values, conditions, consequences