尼可拉斯‧魯曼是當代極有成就的社會學家，他的社會系統理論對歐洲社會科學界的影響深遠，但他在英語系國家的接受度卻遠不如他的筆戰對手哈伯瑪斯。類似的情況也發生在台灣，魯曼的系統理論亦非傳播學論文中常被引用或應用的理論。本文介紹魯曼系統理論中的傳播概念和媒介理論，並以中視∕中天負責人變更案風波為系統分析案例，解釋旺旺中時集團與NCC 間的差異和爭議乃源自不同之系統操作邏輯；這兩個系統無法溝通，因為兩者無法透過此一事件各自實現對自己有意義的自我再製活動。藉由概念介紹和案例分析，本文希望邀請更多的傳播學界讀者一起開發社會系統理論在傳播學研究上的潛能。

Niklas Luhmann was an enormously accomplished sociologist, whose social systems theory has significant impacts on European social sciences. However, comparing with his intellectual rival, Habermas, Luhmann certainly did not enjoy the same recognition in the English-speaking world. Likewise, Luhmann is not widely appreciated in the field of communication studies in Taiwan. This is unfortunate, especially for students of communication, since Luhmann and Habermas are the only two theorists who use communication as the basic unit in constructing social theories. This essay introduces Luhmann’s systemic concept of communication and media theory, and use the dispute over CTV and CtiTV’s change of ownership as a case study to demonstrate systems theory’s application.