THE AMBIVALENCES OF TV-NEWS VIEWING - BETWEEN IDEALS AND EVERYDAY PRACTICES

In this article I discuss the contradictory feelings or ambivalences v iewers experience while watching Dagsrevyen, the main TV news programm e of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). The article is base d 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 indiv idually experienced contradictions. Indeed, such contradictory feeling s could be said to characterize the news viewing experience. This them e of ambivalence experienced in news viewing has not - to my knowledge - received much attention from mass communication researchers.