互联网与数字技术的不断演进升级，改变了传统新闻业的基本生态，将人类新闻活动带入了“后新闻业”时代。新闻活动本体状态的革命性变化，必然呼唤新闻认识论的更新。对于新闻理论研究的未来走向，学界有不同的思考和想象，大致可以分为三种：偏向坚守传统新闻理论研究基本内核、不断扩展新闻理论研究领域的“保守派”；根据新闻活动实际变化，积极探索转换新闻理论研究范式的“改革派”；侧重新兴媒介环境根本特征，试图彻底改变传统新闻理论研究方向的“革命派”。三种走向的共在，本身说明当前新闻理论研究处于大探索的时代，处于充满焦虑但也充满希望的时代。我们应该以开放的姿态，为所有的探索提供自由宽松的环境。本文认为，当前新闻理论研究的重心在于“转换”，在转换中继承传统，在转换中寻求新的出路。转换主要是从传统新闻理论研究范式向新兴媒介环境中的新闻理论研究范式转换，新的研究范式可能不是单一的，而是多元的。至于对新闻理论研究普遍走向的思考与想象，如何落实到当前中国语境中，即如何构建中国特色的新型新闻理论体系，则根本上需要从中国经验出发，展开具体深入系统的探究。

The continuous evolution and upgrading of Internet and digital technology have changed the basic ecology of traditional journalism and brought journalism activities into the “post-journalism” era. The update of news epistemology was called for inevitably because of the revolutionary change of the noumenon state of news activities. There are kinds of thoughts and imaginations about the future trends of journalistic theory research, which can be roughly divided into three categories. “Conservatives” prefer to stick to the basic core of traditional journalistic theory research and constantly expand the field of journalistic theory research; “Reformers” actively explore to transform the research paradigm of journalism theory according to the actual changes of news activities; “Revolutionaries” focus on the fundamental characteristics of the emerging media environment and try to change the research directions of traditional journalism theories completely. The co-existence of the three trends shows that the current research of journalism theory is in “an era of great exploration”, an era full of anxiety but also full of hope. We should maintain an open attitude and provide a free and relaxed environment for all explorations. This paper holds that “transformation” in which inheriting the tradition and seeking a new way is the emphasis of journalism theory research. The transformation of journalism theory is mainly from the traditional research paradigm to the new one which is about the journalism theory research in new media environment. Besides, the new research paradigm may not be single, but multiple. For us, how to put journalism theory research into the current Chinese context, which means, how to build a new system of journalism theory with Chinese characteristics, is a task worth exploring systematically.