本研究旨在延續兩位作者有關「新聞美學」之討論，檢視新聞 報導的符號論述如何再現情感，並討論符號組織與閱聽眾接收外在 真實世界所牵涉的情感意識。本文以美國911事件及台灣921地震 事件為例，說明新聞報導在客觀報導真相以外，亦有引發閱聽眾 「情感再現」的功能。作者認為，新聞研究除傳統客觀實證之理性 層面外，亦應從接收者如何投入感情、融入情緒層面探討。因此， 在本文中新聞已重新定義為「一段由守門人課觀且理性的專業工作過程，到閱聽眾主觀且感性接收間的連續且持續進行的情感與認知 對話狀態」。

The purpose of this study is to continue our earlier interest in so-called "news aesthetics" by calling for a new research paradigm to examine news from an aesthetic perspective. Unlike the traditional positive and more recent linguistic researchers who consider a corresponding relationship between the external reality and realities reflected in news reports, the authors prefer to suggest the importance of how affection and feeling are involved in the reading and watching of news. News therefore is redefined here as “a process of continuous aesthetic dialogue between the information gatekeepers and audience, starting from the former’s objective and professional reporting and writing of narrative stories and ending when the audience receives those stories subjectively and affectively.”