Maritime security is a significant issue in international relations, encompassing national security in various maritime domains. Existing research highlights discrepancies between China's policy, focused on good-neighborliness and sustainable development, and the US policy, geared towards maritime hegemony. These differing approaches lead to conflicts and tensions. This study uses news values, which are socially and cognitively constructed criteria for news selection and presentation, to understand the underlying social attitudes and visions shaping these conflicts. Discursive News Values Analysis (DNVA) provides a framework to analyze how media packages and sells social events and reveals societal perceptions. The study aims to answer: 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 news value construction in both countries?

Previous research has compared China's and the US's maritime security policies, focusing on foreign policy differences. These studies conclude that China seeks sustainable development while the US pursues maritime hegemony. However, these analyses lack insights into public cognition and social attitudes towards maritime security. Other studies have examined marine policies through media reporting, but mainly focused on news content analysis without a systematic exploration of news values. This study uses DNVA to compare newsworthiness, revealing underlying values and societal structures influencing the construction of news discourse. DNVA, a discourse-based approach, extends beyond traditional content analysis, considering both linguistic and visual elements to understand the creation of newsworthiness. This study also aims to address the gap in applying DNVA to diplomatic events and the political structures that shape them. Previous DNVA studies looked at events such as national days, sports stars, and the COVID-19 vaccine. This study addresses the novelty of examining diplomatic events, such as maritime security which is more profoundly affected by political and social ideologies.

The study employed a corpus-based DNVA approach using two corpora: one comprising English news reports from Chinese mainstream international news websites (China Daily, People's Daily, Xinhua, Global Times) and the other from US mainstream English news outlets (CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fox News, Associated Press, ABC News). The corpus included reports containing the keyword "maritime security" in the headline and focusing on the topic throughout the text. Data was collected from January 1st, 2021, to November 10th, 2022, with 100 reports per corpus to ensure comparability. The analysis incorporated corpus linguistic methods using AntConc 3.5.8w to identify keywords and concordances, examining how "maritime security" is defined and labeled. The study further analyzed accompanying photographs, focusing on content and camera techniques, considering visual participants, their activities, and camera angles, etc. Eleven news values categories were used (Aesthetic Appeal, Consonance, Eliteness, Impact, Negativity, Positivity, Personalization, Proximity, Superlativeness, Timeliness, Unexpectedness). The analysis involved five steps: 1) Keyword analysis to identify salient word usage. 2) Concordance analysis for deeper investigation of news value construction. 3) Analysis of photographs, labeling their content and camera techniques. 4) Identification of constructed news values based on the definitions of eleven news value categories. 5) Discussion of the social and political structures influencing the news values, acknowledging the strong influence of politics on both Chinese and US media. This analysis framework incorporated a political structure interpretation of the news values and their construction.

Keyword analysis revealed significant differences. Chinese media keywords focused on international cooperation, joint interests (cooperation, community, order, stability, peace, interests, development, future, law), and specific organizations (Philippines, ASEAN, UNCLOS, DOC, COC). Concordance lines showed emphasis on joint efforts to maintain peace, safeguard common interests, and promote global governance. This created prominent Positivity and Proximity news values. US media keywords highlighted energy transactions, military actions (gas, oil, energy, (price) cap, prices, sanction, company, ship, missile, crew, boat, invasion, war, island), and countries perceived as threats (Israel, Russia, Taiwan, Lebanon, Ukraine). Concordance lines revealed negative emotions (worry, fear, anger, violence), constructing Negativity. Proper nouns indicated threats from various countries, further emphasizing Negativity. Analysis of "security" nominations showed a different focus: Chinese media used socialized nominations (joint maritime security, global security, etc.), emphasizing international cooperation and positivity; while US media employed medical nominations (potential security, Taiwan’s security, etc.), highlighting potential threats and negativity. Photograph analysis showed further discrepancies. Chinese photographs featured positive imagery (bright scenes, smiling sailors), constructing Positivity and Aesthetic Appeal. US photographs presented negative imagery (dark scenes, gloomy skies, shipwrecks), constructing Negativity. Camera techniques (angles, lens) were also used to further emphasize these news values in both media.

The findings indicate how different political structures shape news values. China's emphasis on international cooperation and sustainable development is reflected in the positive portrayal of maritime security, aimed at securing long-term national security and enhancing international influence. The US's focus on preserving its maritime hegemony, manifested in anxieties about potential threats, is reflected in the negative framing. The government-guided nature of Chinese media aligns public attitudes with the government's vision, creating a consistent positive perception of maritime security. Conversely, the commercialized US media reflects the nation's anxieties and fears about threats and challenges. The resulting negative portrayal of maritime security mirrors the prevailing political ideology.

This study reveals how Chinese and US media construct contrasting newsworthiness regarding maritime security: positive and cooperative for China, negative and threatening for the US. The DNVA framework, along with the multimodal corpus-based analysis, provides a comprehensive understanding of the social attitudes and political contexts influencing media narratives. Future research could explore how these differing narratives affect public opinion and international relations.

The study focused on English language news outlets, potentially missing nuances in non-English sources. The timeframe (2021-2022) might not capture long-term trends. The selection of specific media outlets, while representative, might not fully capture the diversity of viewpoints within each country.