What’s the story? A cross-societal ecolinguistic analysis of digital newspaper articles reporting on the US military presence in Okinawa, Japan

Sammanfattning: Social and environmental issues associated with US military presence in Okinawa have adversely affected island residents for years and requires urgent attention. However, with actors with different beliefs and values involved, the search for sustainable solutions is elusive. An ecolinguistic analysis is conducted on digital newspaper articles published in four ‘societies’ – the US, US military, Japan, and Okinawa – to examine how different societies report ‘US military presence in Okinawa’ and its societal implications. Two stories-we-live-by are identified: the security story and the justice story. The security story dominates reports in the US, while the US military and Japan report a mix of the security story and the justice story. Okinawa solely reports the justice story. Potential implications are cognitive lock-ins, hegemony and oppression, and antagonism, which could prevent societies from cooperating in finding sustainable solutions. The findings raise questions about the nature of reporting on military-related challenges across the world.