A NEW KIND OF NEWSPAPER - UNDERSTANDING A POPULARIZATION PROCESS

A social history of a popularization process of major importance for a national press structure forms the basis of this article. Today's lar gest circulation newspaper in Norway is the case in point. Vardens Gan g (now known under the acronym VG) grew out of the resistance movement during the Second World War, and set out with the ambition of being ' a new kind of newspaper'. However, economic problems soon fuelled a po pularization process, and gradually the ground was cleared for a sensa tional growth in circulation numbers. What happened to the original id eals, and to the new kind of newspaper? Answers are indicated by focus ing on changes in the newspaper's modes of addressing its readers and their everyday roles, and by paying particular attention to a 'service and campaign journalism' and to a certain kind of 'newspaper schizoph renia'. On this basis, the author warns against a crude essentialism i n the understanding of popular journalism.