This pilot study examines how a married couple with a small child integrates a 10 p.m. television news program into their weekday lives. The research focuses on how patterns of behaviors extend into television viewing, rather than how television programming influences beliefs, values, and behaviors. Ethnographic methods employed in the observation of this family indicate that getting the news is not an important reason for the husband and wife to watch local television news each week night. Viewing the news is a ritualistic activity for them that signifies the end of the workday and serves as a signal to go to bed. The news gives them a context for conversation and helps them interact. It is merely an entertaining part of their nightly pattern of relaxation. The news broadcasters and their personalities and presentations reinforce a sense of belonging to the community. The television news is a taken-for-granted natural part of their world. (Contains 33 references.) (SLD)