“Jättetragiskt och sorgligt men det blev en bra historia” : En medieetisk analys av genren verkliga brott bland svenska podcasts

Sammanfattning: This thesis examines media ethics in Swedish podcasts within the true crime genre using the consequentialist theory. Over the last couple of years, several true crime podcasts have been criticised for using the personal stories of crime victims to produce entertaining content, without consent from the sufferer or its relatives. At the same time many of the producers claim that their storytelling provides the listener with important insights and necessary information about crimes and judiciary topics. The purpose of the thesis is to identify how true crime podcasts deviate from the rules regarding media ethics for press, TV and radio in Sweden, and examine if there is any truth to the claims made about providing important societal information. This is done by a qualitative content analysis which examines seven of the most popular Swedish true crime podcasts. Later, a consequentialist analysis is done to determine if the positive consequences of true crime podcasts can outweigh the negative ones. The study found that three out of seven examined podcasts contained important societal information, but as many as six showed obvious flaws in relations to media ethics. Only one podcast was found sharing valuable information about judiciary topics whilst not defying any laws or ethical guidelines for media producers. This result confirms previous criticism about the genre, but also enlightens us with the positive insight that it is possible to produce exciting true crime podcasts without violating the integrity of those that have been exposed to crime and traumatic experiences. Keywords: True crime, podcast, media ethics, consequentialism.