本研究計畫以字彙共現及字彙共現網絡作為主要概念，並且以媒體中的永續性及永續發展相關報導作為研究實證資料，探討台灣媒體如何建構及論述永續性概念。字彙共現意涵是探討文本論述慣常性連結的兩兩字彙（word-word collocation），而多個字彙的雙重關係，則形成字彙共現網絡的多重關係，此一網絡化結構將單獨字彙視為節點，與一定字義軸跨度字彙作為統計標準成為網絡連結，並且運用相關程式軟體進行字彙共現網絡繪製。基於字彙共現網絡觀點，本計畫核心問題探問：字彙共現網絡如何用於探索文本意義結構，並且讓我們理解複雜爭議論述議題。 永續性（亦有作者偏好永續發展）概念為本研究計畫選擇作為驗證字彙共現網絡分析可能性的論述議題，該詞彙自1987年聯合國布德蘭德委員會提出後逐漸成為「爭議性論述結構場域」，環境中心主義、科技中心主義、市場自由主義及社會平等主義等觀點被連結到永續性的討論之中，而媒體如何論述及框架永續性概念，也被視為是永續性傳播重要的一環。據此，本研究計畫預計蒐集自1987-2020年以來台灣四家主要平面媒體（聯合報、中國時報、自由時報及蘋果日報）關於永續性相關報導，以字彙共現網絡分析角度考察台灣媒體再現永續性論述之核心及價值觀點、其永續論述的核心結構、及媒體肯認的永續發展方案如何被語言化建構。
This project aims to collect news reports that include ‘sustainability’ and ‘sustainable development’ to investigate how the discourses of sustainability are constructed on media in Taiwan. The research will adopt two key concepts, ‘collocation’ and ‘collocational networks’, in its analysis. In corpus linguistics, a collocation is a series of words that often co-occur together and collocations of words constitute collocational networks. This networked structure of collocation considers individual words as nods and their collocate words as edges. The inter-relations of collocational networks is evaluate with statistical criteria and could be presented as visual graphs by computer software. Regrading to this, the core theoretical question of this project asks: how does collocational networks contribute understandings of controversial discourses? The idea of ‘sustainable development’ was firstly mentioned by the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations in 1987. Since then, the concept has turned into a controversially structured field of discourse, and has been associated with environment-centralism, techno-centralism, market liberalism, and social equalitarianism. How the news media represent and frame the concept of sustainability is thus an important issue in terms of environmental communication. Therefore, this project plans to collect reports published during 1987-2020 that include the keyword ‘sustainability’ from four major Taiwanese newspapers, including the United Daily News, the Liberty Times, the China Times and the Apply Daily. The texts will then be analyzed from the perspective of ‘collocational networks’ to unveil the core viewpoints and values embedded in the reports, and to investigate how the media construct the discourses of sustainability and acknowledge solutions for sustainable development.
