Looking into the Black Box: Intolerance of Ambiguity and Dynamic-Transactional Processes in the Development of Issue-Related Images

Abstract

How does media information become a part of our image of the world? How important to the audience are subjective factors on the extent and composition of media-transmitted images? Using a dynamic-transactional model, a number of subjective factors are analysed. This article focuses on the influence of the personality characteristic `ambiguity tolerance'. Taking into account the process character of media effects, we obtained more differentiated results than could be obtained by a simple one-step output analysis. In a two-wave panel, the issue images of the audience were assessed twice with an interval of one week, and then compared to the individually used media information. Employing a LISREL model, the role of `ambiguity tolerance' in individual construction patterns was detected. Recipients willing to accept ambiguities in their information environment were stimulated more strongly. Their reproductions were more closely based on the original media information. In contrast to this, `ambiguity intolerant' people are more likely to add prior knowledge to the media information in their reproductions. This was shown as a medium-term media effect which was transactionally mediated by activation.