以Mead、Bakhtin有關傳播的理念，建構出合乎主流實證主義的理論模型之後，筆者認為主流的模型當然還有提供概念、指導研究的作用。但是屆此(反)全球化時代的到臨，我們也許更應該秉持Wittgenstein「家族相似性」概念的精神，開拓所謂「想像的傳播探索」。想像的發揮要從常識上大相逕庭的事物中看出它們的類似關係，這跟實證主義主論所依仗的理－從事物在時間點的接續順序中找出因果關係的思維－是分別極大的思考方式。在把想像、理性及它們與語言的關係一一釐清之後，我們以兩個實例說明依「想像的傳播探索」所做的結果如何。

In the pre-global age, what is popular in communication studies seems to be a positivist-rational paradigm, which remains useful in guiding research judging from a model that combines ideas from both Mead and Bakhtin. This paradigm pivots upon the power of reason, a thinking style that emphasizes the causal relations among events located in time series. However, on the eve of the (anti-)global age, we would propose an imaginative framework of communication inquiry which draws upon the concept of “family resemblance” as expounded by Wittgenstein. Imagination stresses the ability to see the similarity between things and events that are widely considered as disparate. The enhancement of this ability can be aided by the use of literary tropes such as metaphor and irony, which are in opposition, but also supplementary, to metonymy and synecdoche, the two tropes that are highly correlated with the use of reason.