Discrepancies in the newsworthiness of maritime security in Chinese and US media outlets: a corpus-based discursive news values analysis

The study addresses how maritime security—defined as national security in maritime territory, shipping channels, marine environment, and ocean resources involving economic, political, technological, legal, and military measures—has been constructed as news in Chinese and US mainstream English media. Prior research suggests China’s maritime security policy emphasizes good-neighborliness and sustainable development, whereas the US seeks maritime hegemony and ultimate national security. Persistent conflicts (e.g., US vessel transits near China’s Nansha Islands; fishing fleet confrontations) underscore the significance of understanding social attitudes shaping policy. Using discursive news values analysis (DNVA), the authors pose three research questions: (1) How is maritime security defined and described in Chinese and US news reporting? (2) What news values are constructed by these definitions and descriptions? (3) What social structures dominate Chinese and US media in their construction of news values? The purpose is to reveal how media in both societies package maritime security differently, offering sociological insight into Sino-US marine conflicts beyond policy descriptions.

Two strands are reviewed. First, scholarship on China–US maritime security focuses on policy comparisons and strategic visions (e.g., He 2019; Yee 2017; Tang 2016), but these works reveal institutional perspectives rather than social attitudes or public cognition underlying policy. Media studies show that news reporting constructs social reality via shared journalistic norms (Bednarek & Caple 2012) and influences policy perceptions (e.g., Gao et al. 2023; Olsen & Osmundsen 2017), though often without systematically analyzing news values. Second, linguistic and journalism research on news values has evolved from selection criteria to a discursive, multimodal construct (Bednarek & Caple 2013, 2017), operationalized in DNVA with 11 categories (Aesthetic Appeal, Consonance, Eliteness, Impact, Negativity, Positivity, Personalization, Proximity, Superlativeness, Timeliness, Unexpectedness). DNVA has been used cross-culturally (Caple et al., 2020; Zhang & Caple, 2021) and in examining national interests (Chen & Liu, 2023), but diplomatic event coverage remains underexplored. This study applies DNVA to Sino–US maritime security reporting to reveal sociopolitical underpinnings of newsworthiness.

Design: A multimodal DNVA combined with corpus linguistic methods examined textual and visual constructions of news values in English-language reporting by Chinese and US mainstream media. Data sources: Chinese outlets: China Daily, People’s Daily, Xinhua, Global Times (English sites synchronized with domestic versions). US outlets: CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fox News, Associated Press, ABC News. Sampling and period: Articles containing the keyword “maritime security” in headlines and thematically centered on maritime security were collected from January 1, 2021 to November 10, 2022. A balanced sample of 100 reports per side was assembled (US: the maximum available 100; China: 100 selected via quota sampling to reflect monthly proportions from 175 total). Corpus composition: Chinese media: 100 reports, 64,932 words, 95 photographs. US media: 100 reports, 123,636 words, 74 photographs. Analyses used percentages to address unequal lengths and photo counts. Analytic steps: 1) Keyword and concordance analysis: Each corpus served as the reference for the other to extract salient keywords and identify foci and news values. AntConc was used (versions noted: 3.5.8w; concordance displays also via 3.8.4w in reporting). 2) Nomination analysis: Collocations and concordances of “security” (manually verified to refer to maritime security) were examined to capture naming strategies and implied news values. 3) Visual analysis: Photographs accompanying the reports were coded for content (participants, activities, setting) and camera techniques (shutter, aperture, focal length, lens use, angle; especially angle and shot type) per Kress & van Leeuwen (2006) and Bednarek & Caple (2012). 4) Mapping to news values: Linguistic and visual features were interpreted against the 11 DNVA news value categories and known construction strategies (Bednarek & Caple, 2017; Bednarek et al., 2021) to identify dominant news values and how multimodal resources reinforce them. 5) Sociopolitical interpretation: Differences in news values were contextualized via the political structures shaping media in China (state-guided) and the US (commercial-corporate ties and hegemonic functions), to infer how social power influences newsworthiness. Reliance on percentages ensured comparability across unequal text lengths and image counts. Examples from concordances and images were used illustratively to ground interpretations.

- Keyword focus diverged sharply: - Chinese media emphasized international cooperation and shared interests: cooperation, community, order, stability, peace, interests, development, law, governance, navigation, escort; proper nouns: ASEAN, UNCLOS, DOC, COC, Philippines; adjectives/adverbs: global, international, shared, joint, bilateral, regional; verbs: promote, safeguard. These patterns constructed Positivity and Proximity through responsible, cooperative, future-oriented framing. - US media emphasized energy and military/strategic risk: gas, oil, prices, sanctions, company, ship, missile, boat, invasion, war, island; proper nouns: Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Lebanon, Taiwan; frequent attribution verbs (said/say) and quotes from officials. This constructed Negativity and Eliteness by highlighting threats, sanctions, conflict, and authoritative voices. - Nominations of “security” (maritime security): - Chinese media: Socialized and collective formulations dominated (35 instances, 100% of Chinese nominations), e.g., joint maritime security, global security, people’s security, public security, national maritime security, linking domestic safety to global peace and cooperation (Positivity, Proximity). - US media: Nominations stressed anticipated threats and third-party security (33 instances, 79% of US nominations of the listed type), e.g., potential security, future security, Taiwan’s/Japan’s/Israel’s/Kuwait’s security, framing anxiety about adversaries and regional crises (Negativity) and elevating allied concerns to critique rivals. - Photographic news values (percentages of photos exhibiting values): - Chinese photos: Positivity in 95%; Aesthetic Appeal in 92%; frequent horizontal angles and medium shots enhanced approachability and Proximity. Visual content used bright, high-saturation palettes and serene or triumphant scenes (e.g., escorts at sunrise, blue skies), reinforcing optimistic, cooperative narratives. - US photos: Negativity in 84%; Aesthetic Appeal in 8%. Frequent use of dark/cold tones, gloomy seas/skies, shipwrecks, and stylistic choices (telephoto compression, high angles for other countries’ ships; close-ups with low angles for US vessels) belittled rivals (Negativity) and emphasized US military power (Eliteness). - Overall construction: - Chinese media framed maritime security as an international, cooperative domain with positive expectations. - US media framed it as an exclusive national security arena marked by threats, conflict, and elite policy responses. - Quantitative corpus balance: 100 reports per side; word counts (China 64,932; US 123,636); photos (China 95; US 74), with analyses normalized via percentages.

Findings indicate that Chinese and US media construct distinct newsworthiness around maritime security rooted in differing sociopolitical structures. In China, state-guided media align with policies emphasizing cooperative security, sustainable development, and regional stability; this yields dominant Positivity and Proximity through cooperative keywords, collectivized security nominations, and aesthetically positive imagery. In the US, commercial-corporate media embedded in a hegemonic national security paradigm emphasize threats, sanctions, and military posturing; this yields Negativity and Eliteness via conflict- and risk-centered keywords, forward-looking threat nominations, and imagery that downplays rivals and elevates US capabilities. These constructions suggest Chinese audiences are cued to view maritime security as a shared international enterprise with optimistic prospects, whereas US audiences are cued to view it as a domain of exclusive national interests and persistent external threats. The multimodal DNVA approach thus exposes how discourse-cognition-society linkages mediate policy perceptions, offering a sociological explanation for enduring Sino–US maritime tensions beyond formal policy statements.

The study shows that Chinese media construct maritime security as international joint security with an optimistic, cooperative outlook (Positivity, Proximity), while US media construct it as exclusive national security marked by threats and elite responses (Negativity, Eliteness). Methodologically, it demonstrates DNVA’s utility for diplomatic and maritime dispute contexts through a corpus-based multimodal framework that integrates keywords, nominations, and photographic analysis. Substantively, it supplements policy-centric research by revealing social emotions and cognition underpinning media narratives, thereby enhancing understanding of Sino–US maritime conflicts. Future research can extend DNVA to additional diplomatic crises, broaden outlet/language coverage, and incorporate audience reception studies to test how constructed news values shape public attitudes and policy support.