作者
臧國仁、鍾蔚文、楊怡珊
Tsang, Kuo-Jen、Chung, Wei-Wen、Yang, Christine
中文摘要
認知心理學近些年來的新發展之一，在於突破過去以人為主的研究傳統，開始探索人際之間的互動心理。有關社會智能的討論，尤其廣受相關領域研究者的歡迎。本研究延續過去幾年對新聞專家生手之研究興趣，借用社會智能概念，討論記者與消息來源間的互動如何涉及自我與他人之間的認知與執行能力（practical knowledge）。
社會智能在本研究中定義為「一個人參與人際互動性質的工作時，在面對解決問題的過程中充分了解自己和他人的需要、感覺、情緒、性情、動機、意向和行為，並根據情境適當因應，以完成目標的一種執行能力」。在記者與消息來源的互動過程中，此項定義可擴張解釋為記者面對訪問對象，如何瞭解自我工作需求與他人需求，進而採取某些執行策略，因應情境限制，完成採訪報導工作的努力。
本研究以一九九七年六月發生之名作家「林清玄再婚」事件為研究個案，探討首先獨家揭發此案的某媒體記者如何運用社會智能完成採訪任務。本研究以「自我/他人」與「認知/執行」兩個面向（四個象限）為基本架構，分析某記者（本文中稱甲記者）如何與林清玄周旋，初則以過去交情獲得其首肯接受訪問，次則接受林之條件以「報喜訊（而非緋聞）」為新聞主軸進而取得林之信賴甚至主動提供照片，最後在新聞寫作中，某記者一方面採取保護林的立場委婉寫出事件真相，另一方面則在字裡行間仔細推敲，向讀者暗示林清玄欺騙前妻且言行不一致的行徑。
本研究以單一個案進行分析，的確發現某記者在與消息來源互動過程中大量運用個人知識與經驗，揣測對方需求與條件，並充分體察各種情境限制，在極短時間內完成工作任務，可謂掌握了工作任務、內外在情境、以及策略與目標三者的協調一致，足以顯示社會智能對記者與消息來源互動的重要影響。
但因僅有單一個案，本研究結果尚不足以推論哪些知識協助記者完成與消息來源的緊密互動關係，本研究亦無法探索社會智能究係形成過程為何。本研究認為，由受訪記者的訪問資料觀之，或許\專家知識的確影響受訪記者快速進入狀況，掌握情境變化，探得消息來源的心智，未來研究可以此為基礎，繼續探討社會智能與新聞記者表現的相關程度。
英文摘要
The purpose of this study was to further explore the pattern of interaction between the news reporter and news source. Following our past experience in studying this relationship in news reporting, we introduced the concept of "social intelligence" in this paper, defined as a person ’s ability to understand and respond to self and other ’s needs, feeling, emotion, disposition, motivation, purpose and behavior in the process of problem-solving and goal-accomplishing.
In this paper, social intelligence was used to explain a reporter ’s ability in executing his news assignment facing the pressure from news sources. In other words, the concept was referred to how a reporter developed the strategy, under the constraint from the context, to deal with all the challenges in news interviews.
We used a news event, which drew close society-wide attention in July, 1997, as our case to closely examine how a senior reporter successfully received permission to talk to this famous writer who was involved in an extramarital scandal. Interestingly, the two (reporter and writer) had been knowing each other for many years, but the task for a scoop story forced the reporter, who had been in the journalism business for more than 20 years, to first contact the writer and then ask for an interview. In the process, the reporter used her social intelligence to persuade the writer to come out and face the public, and therefore accomplish her task to get the story in just a couple of days.
Further, while the reporter hinted in her news story that the writer ’s betrayal of the family was obviously a behavior not acceptable to most of the society, she (reporter) also used a lot of writing skills to show to the writer that she is still faithful to their long-term friendship.
We then concluded in our study that the concept of social intelligence could possibly be observed in the reporter-source interaction and should be continuously studied in the future. The case was obviously not unique but popular and could easily be examined in the reporter ’s daily routines. Simply put, a reporter has to clearly understand his/her own knowledge and experience for the assigned task, and in the meantime he or she needs to get familiar with the source ’s background and needs and the constraints from the context. That means, personal task, understanding of other ’s needs, and context may be considered as the three important factors for the concept of social intelligence for the reporters.