True crime-podcaster i journalistikens gränsland. En kvalitativ intervjustudie om pressetiska avväganden i true crime-podcaster och synen på den växande genren

Abstract

Title: True crime-podcasts in the grey area of journalism Authors: Emma Jeppsson, Elin Jonsson and Maja Säll Level: Bachelor thesis in Journalism Term: Autumn term 2024 Supervisor: Maria Elliot True crime is a well known genre that exists somewhere between entertainment and journalism. Within the podcast format, the true crime genre has grown larger than ever in Sweden and has lately been subject to a lot of criticism and questioning. Crime victims and their family members and relatives have called out podcast creators for making entertainment based on their traumas. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the field with qualitative insights from journalists working within the field. The aim is specifically to examine how journalists practically approach and interpret rules within the Swedish media ethics framework when creating true crime podcasts. Furthermore, the aim is to examine how journalists within the field think that this growing genre, with its unique involvement from private individuals making podcasts, will influence overall criminal journalism. The theoretical framework of the thesis consists of several well-known theories within journalism studies. To assess the results both social responsibility theory, the theory of consequence neutrality and the commercialisation of the media landscape is referred to. The method of the study is qualitative interviews. The results are based on six interviews with Swedish journalists, all of whom work with true crime podcasts and are connected to the Swedish media ethics framework. The main results of the study reveal significant diversity within the Swedish media landscape regarding how the media ethics framework is interpreted practically. Although the journalists operate under the same rules, this does not result in a common way of making journalistic and ethical decisions. Additionally, the study highlights that journalists see varying effects of the expanding genre that is a result of productions outside the media ethics framework. They mention a general decline in trust toward the genre and issues getting interviews with for example witnesses and relatives because of that.