I am professor of media studies, researching audiences and media use. My research explores 1) how we connect to society through news and cross-media use, 2) the meanings of media in everyday life, and 3) the impact of datafication, algorithms and mobile technologies on our lives. I work primarily with qualitative methods.

My new book Media Use in Digital Everyday Life is published with open access and can be downloaded or read online free of charge here. In the book, I discuss how media use has changed since smartphones, social media and digital platforms became part of our lives.

Currently, my work is focused on the role of media use in complex societal crisis situations such as the ongoing pandemic and the climate crisis. I am PI for an interdisciplinary project funded by the Research Council of Norway, titled "Media Use in Crisis Situations".

Together with my colleague Hallvard Moe I am co-leader of Bergen Media Studies Research Group, an active research environment for media use and audience research. I am also Work Package leader for WP1 Understanding media experiences in MediaFutures, a new research centre for responsible research-driven innovation.

My other ongoing or recent projects are MeCIn, a broad study of media use and public connection in Norway, and Digitox, on intrusive media and digital detox. I was co-director of CEDAR - Consortium on Emerging Directions in Audience Research (2014-2017), an European network and research project that conducted a foresight analysis of audience research. Read more in our new book The Future of Audiences, or read our agenda for future research priorities.

I teach and supervise from bachelor to PhD levels in qualitative methods, media use and audience research. I contributed to redesign the master programme in media and communications at UiB, and have developed several new courses.

2024

• Sakariassen, Hilde; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2024). Transferred expectations of human presence: Folk theories among older adults who are inexperienced users of online services. (external link)

2023

• Ytre-Arne, Brita (2023). Media Use in Digital Everyday Life. (external link)
• Moe, Hallvard; Lindtner, Synnøve Skarsbø; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2023). Polarisation and echo chambers? Making sense of the climate issue with social media in everyday life. (external link)
• Dahl, John Magnus Ragnhildson; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2023). Monitoring the infection rate: Explaining the meaning of metrics in pandemic news experiences. (external link)
• Syvertsen, Trine; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2023). Medierepertoar i forandring - da koronapandemien kom til Norge. (external link)
• Moe, Hallvard; Nærland, Torgeir Uberg; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2023). Ritual check-in, shocked immersion, regained stability: A sequential typology of news experiences in crisis situations. (external link)

2021

• Moe, Hallvard; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2021). The Democratic Significance of Everyday News Use: Using Diaries to Understand Public Connection over Time and beyond Journalism. (external link)
• Ytre-Arne, Brita; Moe, Hallvard (2021). Doomscrolling, Monitoring and Avoiding: News Use in COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown. (external link)
• Karlsen, Faltin; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2021). Intrusive media and knowledge work: how knowledge workers negotiate digital media norms in the pursuit of focused work. (external link)
• Lomborg, Stine; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2021). Advancing digital disconnection research: Introduction to the special issue. (external link)

2020

• Schwebs, Ture; Ytre-Arne, Brita; Østbye, Helge (2020). Media i samfunnet. 8. utgave.. (external link)
• Ytre-Arne, Brita; Moe, Hallvard (2020). Folk theories of algorithms: Understanding digital irritation. (external link)
• Ytre-Arne, Brita; Das, Ranjana (2020). Audiences’ Communicative Agency in a Datafied Age: Interpretative, Relational and Increasingly Prospective. (external link)
• Ytre-Arne, Brita; Syvertsen, Trine; Moe, Hallvard et al. (2020). Temporal ambivalences in smartphone use: Conflicting flows, conflicting responsibilities. (external link)

2019

• Moe, Hallvard; Hovden, Jan Fredrik; Ytre-Arne, Brita et al. (2019). Informerte borgere? Offentlig tilknytning, mediebruk og demokrati. (external link)
• Moe, Hallvard; Ytre-Arne, Brita; Nærland, Torgeir Uberg (2019). Between ritual and information: Three phases of Norwegian news audiences’ sense-making of the election of Donald Trump. (external link)
• Ytre-Arne, Brita (2019). Media use in changing everyday life: How biographical disruption could destabilize media repertoires and public connection. (external link)

2018

• Ytre-Arne, Brita; Moe, Hallvard (2018). Approximately Informed, Occasionally Monitorial? Reconsidering Normative Citizen Ideals. (external link)
• Ytre-Arne, Brita; Das, Ranjana (2018). An Agenda in the Interest of Audiences: Facing the Challenges of Intrusive Media Technologies. (external link)

2017

• Christensen, Dag Arne; Ytre-Arne, Brita; Lindén, Tord Skogedal et al. (2017). Tjenestedemokratiet. (external link)
• Das, Ranjana; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2017). Critical, agentic and trans-media: Frameworks and findings from a foresight analysis exercise on audiences . (external link)

2016

• Ytre-Arne, Brita (2016). The social media experiences of long-term patients: Illness, identity, and participation. (external link)
• Ytre-Arne, Brita; Das, Ranjana (2016). After the excitement: An introduction to the work of CEDAR. (external link)

2015

• Ytre-Arne, Brita (2015). Mammaforum som politisk debattarena - En analyse av nettdebatt om velferdsstaten. (external link)

2014

• Ytre-Arne, Brita (2014). Positioning the self. (external link)

2013

• Ytre-Arne, Brita (2013). «Vi er altsaa dog allerede midt ude i det offentlige Liv» - Medieomtale av kvinnestemmerett, 1890–1913. (external link)
• Ytre-Arne, Brita (2013). Changing magazine journalism : key trends in Norwegian women's magazines. (external link)
• Ytre-Arne, Brita (2013). The Ironic Spectator: Solidarity in the Age of Post-Humanitarianism, by Lilie Chouliaraki. (external link)

2012

• Ytre-Arne, Brita (2012). Women’s magazines and their readers: Experiences, identity and everyday life. (external link)
• Madsen, Ole Jacob; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2012). Me at my best: therapeutic ideals in Norwegian women's magazines. (external link)
• Ytre-Arne, Brita (2012). Positioning the self. Identity and women's magazine reading. (external link)

2011

• Ytre-Arne, Brita (2011). Women's magazines and the public sphere. (external link)
• Ytre-Arne, Brita (2011). Women's magazines and their readers. The relationship between textual features and practices of reading. (external link)
• Ytre-Arne, Brita (2011). Et eget rom? : lesernes erfaringer med kvinneblader. (external link)

2009

• Ytre-Arne, Brita (2009). Å lese kvinneblader: Kos og kritikk. (external link)

2007

• Ytre-Arne, Brita; Helland, Knut (2007). Fotballavtalen, journalistikk og presseetikk. En analyse av TV 2 og fotballproduktet. (external link)

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

"Media Use in Crisis Situations: Resolving Information Paradoxes, Comparing Climate Change and COVID-19". PI, research project (2021-2025) funded by the Norwegian Research Council.

"Understanding Media Experiences", Work Package 1 in SFI MediaFutures, centre for research-driven innovation, funded by the Norwegian Research Council, the University of Bergen and industry partners in the Norwegian media sector.

"Digitox: Intrusive media, ambivalent users, and digital detox". Research project (2019-2023) led by Trine Syvertsen, funded by the Norwegian Research Council.

"Media Use, Culture and Public Connection: Freedom of Information in the 'Age of Big Data'". Research project (2015-2018) led by Hallvard Moe, funded by the Norwegian Research Council.

"Consortium on Emerging Directions in Audience Research". Consortium (2014-2017) led by Ranjana Das (University of Surrey) and Brita Ytre-Arne, funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK.