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) people's perceptions of datafication, algorithms and new technologies. I work primarily with qualitative methods.

My 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.

I am PI for a new project called IMAGINE - Citizen perceptions of AI in everyday media life, in which we explore changing folk theories of AI. I am also PI for an interdisciplinary project funded by the Research Council of Norway, titled "Media Use in Crisis Situations", in which we explore how people relate to climate change and societal crises through everyday media use. 

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 have previously been Work Package leader for WP1 Understanding media experiences in MediaFutures, a new research centre for responsible 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 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

• Moe, Hallvard; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2024). Metoder for å forstå mediebruk. (external link)
• 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)

2023

• Syvertsen, Trine; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2023). Medierepertoar i forandring - da koronapandemien kom til Norge. (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)
• 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 (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)
• 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

• 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)
• Ytre-Arne, Brita; Moe, Hallvard (2021). Doomscrolling, Monitoring and Avoiding: News Use in COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown. (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)
• 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)

2020

• 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)
• Schwebs, Ture; Ytre-Arne, Brita; Østbye, Helge (2020). Media i samfunnet. 8. utgave.. (external link)

2019

• 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)
• Moe, Hallvard; Hovden, Jan Fredrik; Ytre-Arne, Brita et al. (2019). Informerte borgere? Offentlig tilknytning, mediebruk og demokrati. (external link)

2018

• 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)
• 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; Moe, Hallvard (2018). Approximately Informed, Occasionally Monitorial? Reconsidering Normative Citizen Ideals. (external link)

2017

• Christensen, Dag Arne; Lindén, Tord Skogedal; Ytre-Arne, Brita et al. (2017). Tjenestedemokratiet. (external link)
• Christensen, Dag Arne; Lindén, Tord Skogedal; Ytre-Arne, Brita et al. (2017). Avslutning: velferdsstaten som kanal for deltakelse. (external link)
• Sjøvaag, Helle; Ytre-Arne, Brita (2017). Mediene og velferdsstaten - hva mener publikum?. (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)
• Ytre-Arne, Brita (2017). Sosiale medier og brukerperspektiver i velferdsdebatten. (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.