Qualitative Study on the Professional Ethics Awareness of Graphic Design Students

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the level and characteristics of the professional ethics awareness of students enrolled in graphic design departments, in which professional ethics courses have been found to occupy a limited place in the curriculum. Designed as a phenomenological study, one of the qualitative research designs, the research was conducted with a total of 25 fourth-year graphic design students selected through purposive sampling from state universities located in five different geographical regions of Türkiye. The data were collected through face-to-face semi-structured interviews and analysed by means of content analysis. The findings revealed that, although prospective graphic designers possess a general awareness of the concept of ethics, they are unable to transfer this awareness to professional practice. In particular, it was determined that the students have marked deficiencies in knowledge concerning such matters as copyright, font licensing, original design and legal responsibilities, and that their awareness of the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works (FSEK) and of the concept of plagiarism remains extremely limited. By contrast, the great majority of the participants stated that an ethics course should be incorporated into graphic design programmes. Considered as a whole, these findings lead to the conclusion that systematically strengthening the teaching of ethics in graphic design education constitutes an important necessity.