本論文旨在探討國內報紙新聞如何報導大學生？所再現的大學生形象為何？主要的研究目的如下：第一，瞭解大學生相關新聞的報導特點；第二，針對《聯合報》、《中國時報》、《自由時報》、《蘋果日報》，在形式與內容上的報導表現進行差異性比較；第三，設計「大學生形象指標」，用以評量大學生報紙形象的顯著特徵與正、負面傾向。透過「內容分析法」設計，再藉由統計方法進行資料處理，以獲致本研究的重要發現與結論。
研究結果發現，就報導量而言，以《聯合報》與《自由時報》分居一二；「純淨新聞」的報導比例高達九成以上。報導主題最高，依序是「受害的大學生」、「政策升學」、「犯罪」。整體來說，報紙對大學生展現較高的重視程度，在新聞價值的考量上頗為一致。
報紙大學生印象以「負面報導」最多。各報負面形象的前三者形象指標，聯合報：「危險的」、「膚淺的」、「抗爭的」。中國時報：「抗爭的」、「危險的」、「有害的」及「非法的」。自由時報：「危險的」、「有害的」、及「非法的」。蘋果日報：「競爭力低的」、「非法的」、及「有害的」。
The purpose of this study is to explore the images of college student reflected in the news coverage of newspapers in 2005. The research questions are: First, what are the features of news coverage related to college students；Second, what are the differences of news coverage associated with college students comparatively among four domestic newspapers; Third, what are the image reflection of college students portrayed by the four newspapers. In order to contribute to the preceeding research questions mentioned above, this study employs the methods of content analysis to collect research data and then take those data into information conducting by using the computer program of SPSS. There are important results as follows.
In the aspect of amount of news coverage, United Daily News covers the most and the next is Liberty Times. Straight news counts 94.3% of the total coverage. Editorial counts 5.8%. The priority of the subjects reported by four newspaper are “suffered college students,”“policy,”“crime.”It means that popular newspapers not only pay much more attention to college students but also have news values about college students in common.
The images of college students in newspaper are negative in all categories. The top three of negative images of college students portrayed by the four newspapers are following：United Daily News covers “dangous,”“shallow”and“ resistant”；China Times covers “ resistant”,“ dangous”,“harmful ”,“illegal”； Liberty Times covers “dangous”,“harmful”, “illegal”；Apple Daily News covers“competitionless”,“ illegal ”,“harmful.”
