Constructing Allies versus Non-Allies in News Discourse : A Discursive News Values Analysis of US Media Reporting on Two Territorial Disputes

News values are used by journalists to construct events and news actors as newsworthy.The present study investigates the use of news values in the reporting on two territorial disputes, one between China and Japan (Diaoyu/Senkaku) and one between Japan and South Korea (Dokdo/Takeshima), in the US news outlets CNN, FOX News and the Washington Post. In addition, it also examines what news values tend to be associated with the involved parties, US-allies Japan and South Korea, and US non-allies China, as well as to what extent the news values associated with Japan differ between the reporting on the two disputes. This is done through a Discursive News Values Analysis (DNVA) which examines how news values are construed using linguistic resources. The aim is to produce new insights into how international conflicts are reported on, and how certain nations are made newsworthy in US media. The results suggest that the news values of Eliteness, Negativity, Superlativeness and Timeliness were foregrounded in the reporting on both disputes, while Proximity was far more common in the Diaoyu/Senkaku dispute articles. Eliteness and Personalisation were commonly associated with US allies while a combination of Superlativeness and Negativity was more common with US non-allies, which resulted in Negativity being further emphasised. Finally, Proximity was far more commonly associated with Japan in the Diaoyu/Senkaku dispute articles compared to the Dokdo/Takeshima dispute articles. Thus, the analysis shows that US allies tend to be constructed as newsworthy in a more positive light than non-allies, and it also indicates that nations defending a contested area in a territorial dispute appear to be framed more positively than their counterparts.