The ethics as strategic discourse in journalistic field

Abstract

This paper argues that ethics can be a strategic argument used by journalists to dimish the dilemma between the ethical claim of ‘public interest’ and the professional constraints made by the news corporations. By analysing journalists’ interviews and journalism textbooks, it is suggested that the journalist’s discourse about ethics not always take into account this professional ‘double bind’ and is employed as a sort of ‘symbolic capital’ in the journalism field.