Between Personal and Professional : Swedish journalists' perception of professional ethics in the wake of the #MeToo movement

Abstract: This thesis is a qualitative study that examines the correlation between the activist movement #MeToo and the possible effects it had on journalists’ professional conduct with regard to ethics, through the theoretical framework of journalism culture and patriotic journalism. The analysis is based on six semi- structured interviews with journalists that were involved in publications during the height of the #MeToo movement in Sweden. The study indicates that the movement influenced the informants, several found it difficult to differentiate the personal and work-related impact it had on them at the time. Their intense coverage of the movement was fueled by the engaged public, as well as the activist movement itself, which could be interpreted as market orientation or interventionism – or both. Their expressed solidarity with the movement’s values and goals, as well as the fact that their own industry had a specific #MeToo- campaign, positioned the journalists between their solidarity to the society and their professional identity.