Summary: This study aims to describe how social workers experience media and its significance in relation to the professional role and the professional status. The media holds a position of power since they choose what is published and thus have a significant influence on the public’s thoughts and opinions. Previous research shows that media reporting about the social service often consists of criticism of their work and actions. It also shows that negative coverage from media may have a negative impact on the status of social workers. The method in this study is qualitative and based on interviews from nine social workers, all of whom are active within the children and family-unit. The collected material is analyzed from the theoretical framework: profession theory and emotion sociology.

Findings: The result given from the interviews shows that media coverage about the social services and social workers is predominantly negative. The social workers experience that the media coverage does not affect how they perceive their own professional status, but they feel that it affects how the public and clients view the status of social workers. The social workers also experience that the media coverage affects the client work since the social workers receives additional work and higher workload due to the preconceptions that clients bring into the meeting.