The Ambivalences of TV News Viewing: Between Ideals and Everyday Practices

Abstract

In this article I discuss the contradictory feelings or ambivalences viewers experience while watching Dagsrevyen, the main TV news programme of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). The article is based on the study I conducted of audiences' reception of this programme. 1 I was concerned with the significance attributed to Dagsrevyen by its considerable audience, and the various meanings generated by the act of viewing the programme. I found ambivalences related to watching the newscast to be a significant aspect of my study's interview accounts. Thus, news as a genre and social institution results in certain individually experienced contradictions. Indeed, such contradictory feelings could be said to characterize the news viewing experience. This theme of ambivalence experienced in news viewing has not — to my knowledge — received much attention from mass communication researchers.