Covering tragedy in a small community
A practice-oriented study of local journalism, embeddedness, and ethical decision-making
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21719306 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stine Agnete Sand (0000-0002-8842-3272, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 1448-1464 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journalism (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1464-8849 • E-ISSN: 1741-3001 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/14648849251338494 |
| OpenAlex | W4409788157 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 23 |
Accidents in small communities raise some ethical questions for local journalists. How to provide news and simultaneously be sensitive to community and victims? Inspired by research which indicates a shift towards an overall local journalism perspective that does not separate the watchdog role from the caring role, the article discusses journalism practice, tragedy, and ethical decision-making. Despite local journalism’s documented “closeness to community”, few studies examine relationships between individual, -institutional, and society level including individual decisions, workplace- and institutional practices, and society. Using the covering of a tragic helicopter accident in a small community in Norway as a case, including interviews with journalists, presentations and news texts, findings show that for local journalists, the society level is important. Findings also indicate a change in attitude among journalists when covering tragedy. The normative idea of objectivity, including viewing proximity to community and closeness to sources as unethical, did not come forward in the interviews or in the texts. Instead, embeddedness is perceived as part of all their work, something they need to consider daily. In a hybrid media environment where rumors spread on social media, tragedies call for both an ethic of care, and to exercise the watchdog role. Local journalists keep the community accountable for their digital behavior. By urging its inhabitants to care and reminding them of the importance and responsibilities of being part of the community when a tragedy happens, local journalists contribute to a collective “we”, emphasizing local media’s important role in the local society
Embeddedness · Engineering ethics · Ethical decision · Journalism · Media studies · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Disaster Management and Resilience · Engineering · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Public Relations and Crisis Communication
Media Organisation and Production
From “Knowing How” to “Being Able”
Preparing for the Worst
Help or Harm
In front of and behind the camera
Ethics and Eloquence in Journalism
Revelation, Reckoning and Recovery
Reporting Through Patriotic Lenses
Surviving the Media
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
A Different Breed Altogether
Ordinary witnessing in post-television news
The Journalistic Gut Feeling
Conceptualizing embeddedness as a key dimension for analyzing journalistic cultures
Reimagining Local Journalism
The Political Information Cycle in a Hybrid News System
What is journalism
Between truth and respect - towards an ethics of care in journalism
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |