I am professor of media studies, researching audiences and cross-media use. My research explores 1) how people connect to society and use and avoid news, 2) meanings of media in everyday life, and 3) people's perceptions of datafication, algorithms and digital technologies. I work primarily with qualitative methods.

My book Media Use in Digital Everyday Life is published 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. 

I am one of the series editors for Transforming Communications - Studies in Cross-Media Research, a book series published by Palgrave/Springer to advance international scholarship on cross-media and datafication. 

Together with my colleague Hallvard Moe I lead Bergen Media Studies Research Group, an active research environment for media use and audience research at the University of Bergen. We collaborate with international colleagues and support young researchers. 

I am PI for two research projects funded by the Research Council of Norway: IMAGINE (Citizen perceptions of AI in everyday media life) explores emerging folk theories of AI, while "Media Use in Crisis Situations" analyses how people relate to climate change and other societal crises through everyday media use. 

Previously, I was work package leader in MediaFutures, a research centre for research-driven innovation. Other former projects include MeCIn, a broad study of media use and public connection in Norway, and Digitox, on intrusive media and digital disconnection. 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 book The Future of Audiences, or our agenda for 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.

2025

• Høegh-Krohn, Solveig Kristine Bortne; Haarstad, Håvard; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2025). Climate Change Is an Intangible News Topic: A Qualitative Analysis of Audience Perceptions. (external link)
• Moe, Hallvard; Ytre-Arne, Brita; Høegh-Krohn, Solveig Kristine Bortne (2025). How people make sense of climate issues in the news. (external link)

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)
• Andersen, Kim; Toff, Benjamin; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2024). Introduction: What We (Don’t) Know About News Avoidance. (external link)
• Moe, Hallvard; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2024). Metoder for å forstå mediebruk. (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)
• Ytre-Arne, Brita; Moe, Hallvard (2023). Citizens’ news use during Covid-19 Concerns about misinformation and reliance on local news in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. (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)
• Syvertsen, Trine; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2023). Medierepertoar i forandring - da koronapandemien kom til Norge. (external link)

2022

• Ytre-Arne, Brita (2022). Tre spørsmål om metodeutvikling. (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)
• Lomborg, Stine; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2021). Advancing digital disconnection research: Introduction to the special issue. (external link)
• Syvertsen, Trine; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2021). Privacy, energy, time and moments stolen: Social media experiences pushing towards disconnection. (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)

2020

• 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)
• Ytre-Arne, Brita; Moe, Hallvard (2020). Folk theories of algorithms: Understanding digital irritation. (external link)
• Schwebs, Ture; Ytre-Arne, Brita; Østbye, Helge (2020). Media i samfunnet. 8. utgave.. (external link)

2019

• Moe, Hallvard; Hovden, Jan Fredrik; Ytre-Arne, Brita et al. (2019). Informerte borgere? Offentlig tilknytning, mediebruk og demokrati. (external link)
• Ytre-Arne, Brita (2019). Media use in changing everyday life: How biographical disruption could destabilize media repertoires and public connection. (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)

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)
• Das, Ranjana; Ytre-Arne, Brita; Mathieu, David et al. (2018). Designing a Foresight Analysis Exercise on Audiences and Emerging Technologies: CEDAR's Analytical-Intuitive Balance. (external link)
• Ytre-Arne, Brita; Chimirri, Niklas Alexander; Amaral, Inês et al. (2018). Everyday Lives of Audiences in a Future Europe: Tracing Emerging Issues from Scenarios to Experiences in 2030. (external link)

2017

• Sjøvaag, Helle; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2017). Mediene og velferdsstaten - hva mener publikum?. (external link)
• Christensen, Dag Arne; Lindén, Tord Skogedal; Ytre-Arne, Brita et al. (2017). Tjenestedemokratiet. (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.