Measuring the complexity of viewers' television news interpretation: Differentiation

If television news viewers are conceived as active audience members, their interpretations should be a crucial factor in the study of the 'effects' of television news. Here, viewers' interpretations are understood as subjective (re) constructions of a news item. In a previous contribution, we argued that interpretations can vary both within and between viewers in regard to the level of complexity. Complexity is the degree to which interpretations are a) differentiated, and b) integrated. In this contribution, we will operationalize the concept of differentiation of television news interpretations by its viewers. Furthermore, we will present a procedure for measuring differentiation based on the thoughts viewers reported while they watched a television news program. Results of a small-scale study (N = 19) provided first indications that the procedure is able to discriminate between viewers with varying levels of differentiation in interpreting television news.