以意見市場隱喻作為立論基礎的結構學派認為，為促成多元觀點之實現，互相競爭之市場結構，勢必將優於市場被少數新聞媒體所寡佔或壟斷。然而1993年後的台灣電視媒體產業，在開放有線電視加入市場後，逐漸升溫的競爭環境，使得電視新聞成為各家電視台爭取收視率的戰場，電視新聞內容開始訴諸刺激觀眾的感官需求。為了減少成本支出，電視新聞大量依賴相同資訊來源、走向同一種報導風格，此雖然增加了閱聽眾收看新聞之興趣，但就新聞媒體特殊的第四權角色而論，如此亂象使得媒體多元性更加喪失，甚至為社會帶來負外部性。 縱使經過了結構學派所期待的市場競爭後，我國的電視新聞媒體諷刺般地仍無法完全彰顯新聞媒體的民主社會價值功能。反思如此結構設計與競爭現況之矛盾，本文著眼於新聞媒體之互相競爭行為，一從歷史實證研究中鋪陳出促成新聞媒體走上岐路之主因；二闡述由媒體本質引發市場失靈之作用機理；三以靜態策略賽局的分析，呈現出超過相當程度之競爭關係，將促使新聞媒體採取對民主價值具有負面效應之優勢策略行為。由此三者論述，最終對新聞媒體越多越好的市場結構管制目標，作出新的政策建議。;Based on the metaphor of the marketplace of ideas, the school of structuralism argues that a market structure which encourages competition is definitely superior to the oligopoly or monopoly of few news media companies in terms of facilitating the realization of diverse perspectives. However, after cable TV companies joined in the market in 1993, the growing competition in the Taiwanese TV industry has rendered TV news broadcasting a battlefield for every TV company to fight for audience ratings. The content of TV news began to resort to stimulating audiences’ sensual excitement. In order to reduce costs, TV news greatly relies on the same source and gradually takes on the same style. These tendencies increase audiences’ interest in watching TV news; however, in terms of the special role of the news media as the fourth estate, the chaos of TV news is detrimental to the media diversity, and it even brings negative externalities to the society. Ironically, the TV news companies in our country still cannot fully manifest the values and functions needed for a democracy to succeed even after the companies went through the competition expected by the school of structuralism. Examining the paradox in the design of the structure and in the current situation of the competition and focusing on the competitive behaviors of news media, this study goes through historical and empirical research to explore the main reasons for the news media to go astray. It also elaborates the mechanism for the nature of media to cause market failure. Furthermore, with the analysis of a static strategy game, the study presents that a competitive relationship exceeding a certain extent will impel news media to adopt the behaviors of dominant strategies that cast negative effect upon democratic values. Finally, this study proposes new policy suggestions concerning the regulative goal for a market structure that advocates “the more news media, the better.”
