1 Introduction

Since the 21st century, the continuous deterioration of the global ecological environment has brought unprecedented pressure to humanity. Japan’s announcement of discharging nuclear wastewater into the ocean caused a sensation worldwide, and has received much media coverage from different countries or areas.

News media in any country in the world have their own values and ideologies, and they invariably follow their own values and ideologies in guiding public opinion when engaging in news reporting. The higher the visibility and authority of the media are, the stronger their guiding influence will be (Shen, 2016). China Daily, serving as an important window for the interaction between China and other countries, is a crucial platform for telling China’s story and spreading China’s voice. USA Today, as the second-largest national daily newspaper in the United States, covers various fields such as domestic and international politics, economics, sports, entertainment. It serves as a vital bridge for achieving global information exchange. By conducting the ecological discourse analysis of the news by these two media, we can identify the similarities and differences in their ecological nature regarding the same news topic. The purpose is to enhance the ecological awareness of the news media and ultimately guide the public to adopt behaviors that are conducive to environmental protection.

2 Theoretical Basis

2.1 Ecological Linguistics and Eco-discourse Analysis

Over the past half century, rapid advances in science and technology have greatly enhanced humanity’s ability to transform nature. However, the relationship between humans and the natural world has been deteriorating sharply. In response to the widespread deterioration of the natural environment, ecolinguists have assumed the social responsibility of applying linguistics and other disciplines to address environmental issues, or at the very least, to provide alternatives to the study of the relationship between language and ecology. Ecological linguistics is a field of language study that combines ecology and linguistics (Fan, 2005). Its task is to reveal the interaction between language and the environment by studying the ecological factors of language and the relationship between language and ecology (Huang, 2016).

In a broad sense, eco-discourse analysis includes the analysis of ecological discourse and the ecological analysis of discourse. The former focuses on the discourse about ecology, while the latter studies the ecological factors in various types of discourses (Huang & Zhao, 2017). Eco-discourse analysis, based on ecological linguistics, is closely related to the emergence of global ecological issues. Stibbe (2015) proposes that ecological discourse analysis should be guided by specific ecosophy and theoretically supported by linguistic theories to judge the ecological orientations of discourses. Ecological discourse analysis is not only about analyzing ecological discourse, but also analyzing any discourse that has potential impacts on the ecosystem (Alexander & Stibbe, 2014).

Generally, ecological linguistics has two research models: one is called the “Haugen model”, and the other is called the “Halliday model” (Fan, 2005; Han, 2013). The “Haugen model” holds that language has its own ecological environment, and the attitudes of the language users and the society in which the language is used determine the language’s living environment. Thus the “Haugen model” is also understood as “linguistic ecology”. However, the “Halliday model” emphasizes the important role of language in various ecological issues, highlighting the “social responsibility” of linguists and reminding them to consider what contributions they can make to environmental protection. Thus the “Halliday model” is also called “environmental linguistics” (Huang, 2016). And this paper adopts the “Halliday model” to study the influence of language on ecological issues.

Scholars have conducted ecological discourse analysis from the perspective of systemic functional linguistics (SFL), but most of them focused on theoretical interpretation, framework construction, evaluation system, and transitivity system. For instance, Bednarek & Caple (2010) analyzed the environmental reports of The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia using the appraisal theory. Xin & Huang (2013) introduced the connection between systemic functional linguistics and ecological discourse analysis. He & Zhang (2017) constructed an operable ecological discourse analysis model based on the theory of systemic functional linguistics. Li & Liu (2020) made an ecological discourse analysis of Trump’s speech from the perspective of evaluation system. Cao & Yang (2022) analyzed the ecological discourses of online news based on transitivity system. Miao & Liu (2023) adopted the transitivity system as an analytical framework to ecologically analyze news reports on climate change in People’s Daily.

2.2 Thematic System

The concepts of “theme” and “rheme” were first proposed by Mathesius, a founding member of the Prague School. In systemic functional linguistics, the thematic system realizes the textual metafunction. Theme is the element that serves as the point of departure of the message; it locates and orients the clause within the context. The remainder of the message is called Rheme (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2013).

From the perspective of ecological linguistics, the theme not only reflects the function of clause structure, but also embodies the ecological nature of discourse. Therefore, the division of the theme should maximally demonstrate the role and influence of the thematic structure in representing the ecological properties of events and their participants within the clause (He & Ma, 2020). He and Ma (2020) have established an analysis framework for the ecological nature of themes within the thematic system, as shown in Fig. 1 below. According to this framework, the clauses in the discourses can be categorized into the natural ecological system and the social ecological system. There are different criteria for evaluating the ecological nature of themes in these two systems. In the natural ecological system, the ecology of themes depends on the animation of themes: the higher the frequency of non-human participants and physical participants as experiential themes is in a discourse, the stronger the ecological nature of the discourse is. In the social ecological system, the ecology of themes is related with the diversity and interactivity of themes: the more diverse and interactive the participants of themes are, the stronger the ecological nature of the discourse is. The markedness of themes is also a significant factor in judging the ecological nature of themes.   

FIG.1 THE ECOLOGICAL NATURE OF THEME (HE & MA, 2020B:26)

Li (2010) pointed out that the analysis of thematic structure in discourses can reflect the specific cognitive framework of the speaker. Through the analysis of ecological discourse on the same-topic news reports by Chinese and American media, we can compare the ecological nature between the two types of media. Previous studies have been quite extensive, but there were relatively few studies which analyzed ecologically the same-topic news reports by different media from the perspective of thematic system.

3 Comparative Analysis

The data for this paper are two news reports by China Daily and USA Today on Japan’s first nuclear wastewater discharge incident. The incident occurred on August 24, 2023, and both reports were released on August 24, 2023 (https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202308/24/WS64e6d063a31035260b81e017.html,https://www.usatoday.com /story/news/world/2023/08/24/radioactive-wastewater-fukushima-nuclear-plant/70666092007/).There are a total of 579 words and 47 clauses in China Daily and a total of 731 words and 66 clauses in USA Today. All of the data was manually annotated and statistically analyzed using UAM Corpus Tool 3.3. According to the framework constructed by He and Ma (2020), some of the clauses belong to the natural ecological system while some are attached to the social ecological system. Afterwards, the thematic types of each clause were differentiated and counted based on the framework model. In addition, the markedness of the theme is also a comparative factor. Tab. 1 and Tab. 2 present the type of themes of the two reports. As shown in the tables, the percentage of experiential theme in China Daily and USA Today is 76.6% and 72.8% respectively. The ecological nature of these themes will be analyzed in terms of natural ecological system and social ecological system with instances from the two news reports.

TAB. 1 THE TYPE OF THEMES IN CHINA DAILY

TAB. 2 THE TYPE OF THEMES IN USA TODAY

3.1 Thematic Comparison for Natural Ecological System

Based on the ecological philosophy of “Diversity and Harmony, Interaction and Co-existence” (He & Wei, 2018), ecological linguistics emphasizes that humans are part of nature and should adopt an attitude of conforming to and respecting nature. He and Ma (2020) proposed that in discourse related to nature, speakers should consciously use non-human participants and physical participants as themes to stimulate the perception of the discourse recipients towards the natural environment. Therefore, the higher the frequency of non-human participants and physical participants as experiential themes is in a discourse, the stronger the ecological nature of the discourse is. The results are shown in Fig. 2.

FIG. 2 THEMATIC COMPARISON FOR NATURE ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM

The statistical results show that China Daily has a total of 17 natural ecological clauses, while USA Today has a total of 29 natural ecological clauses. Neither of the news involves non-human participants as the theme. However, in terms of physical participants as the theme, China Daily has a frequency of 12 occurrences, accounting for 70.6%, while USA Today has a frequency of 16 occurrences, accounting for 55.2%. The news report in China Daily demonstrates stronger ecological nature than that in USA Today. The following examples are all from natural ecological system. By observing the types of themes, we can better perceive the ecological nature of these themes. The full forms of the following abbreviations are as follows: ind (human individual participants as themes), phy (physical participants as themes), soc (social participants as themes), UT (Unmarked Theme), MT (Marked Theme).

1) Fujimura (ind, UT) stressed that the ocean discharge, which (phy, UT) is to continue for at least 30 years, (phy, UT) will cause significant environmental damage. “It (phy, UT) will pollute the sea, the marine life within it, the environment, and the Earth.”  (China Daily)

2) The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami (phy, UT) destroyed the plant’s cooling systems, causing three reactors to melt. Highly contaminated cooling water applied to the damaged reactors (phy, UT) has leaked continuously to building basements and (phy, UT) mixed with groundwater. (USA Today)

Both of the examples above belong to the natural ecological system. As we can see, there are a total of 4 clauses in the instance in Example 1). And the themes of theses clauses are “Fujimura”, “the ocean discharge”, “the ocean discharge”, and “It (the ocean discharge)”. The first theme can be labeled as individual participant while the remaining three are all physical participants. However, there are 3 clauses in the sentences in Example 2); the themes of theses clauses are “The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami”, “Highly contaminated cooling water”, and “highly contaminated cooling water”, all of which are physical participants as themes. Due to a higher proportion of physical participants as themes in the instance from China Daily, it exhibits a stronger ecological nature than that from USA Today.

3.2 Thematic Comparison for Social Ecological System

The ecological philosophy of “Diversity and Harmony, Interaction and Co-existence” (He & Wei, 2018) advocates the diversity and interactivity of social factors. He and Ma (2020) pointed out that the diversification and interactivity of the theme should be consistent with the current multilateralism in the international order, which can be explained by the following two points: First, the more diverse the participants of theme, the stronger the ecological nature of the discourse and vice versa. Second, when the theme in the discourse is alternately filled by different participants, the discourse demonstrates a stronger ecological nature and vice versa. The analytical results are shown in Fig. 3.

FIG. 3 THEMATIC COMPARISON FOR SOCIAL ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM

The statistical results show that China Daily has a total of 30 social ecological clauses, while USA Today has a total of 37 social ecological clauses. Both media involve three similar categories of theme: human individual participants, human group participants, and social participants, but the proportions are quite different. In China Daily, the proportions are 36.7%, 10%, and 30% respectively, while in USA Today, the proportions are 16.2%, 13.5%, and 46% respectively. Due to the differences in reporting methods, the two pieces of news have differences in the categories of themes. To enhance the authenticity and authority of the news, China Daily often uses direct quotations, resulting in a relatively larger proportion of human individual participants. USA Today, however, is inclined to explain the event process. Thus the proportion of social participants is relatively large. In conclusion, in social ecological system, both news reports use diverse participants as themes which are also changed alternately, resulting in a strong ecological nature of the discourse. Additionally, both news reports extensively choose human and social factors as participants to explain Japan’s nuclear wastewater discharge behavior. Such choices can better reflect the speakers’ concern for natural ecology and their comprehensive thinking on environmental protection, which is conducive to stimulating readers’ reflection and action on nuclear wastewater discharge behavior. The following examples are analyzed in terms of the social ecological system. The ecological nature of these themes can be perceived by observing the types of themes.

3) Live video (soc, UT) provided by the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) showed that a staff member (ind, UT) turned on a seawater pump at around 1:00 pm local time (0400 GMT), marking the beginning of the controversial ocean discharge, while concerns and opposition (soc, UT) persisted among local fishermen as well as in neighboring countries and Pacific island countries. (China Daily)

4) In a live video from a control room at the plant Thursday, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (soc, UT) showed a staff member (ind, UT) turn on a seawater pump, marking the beginning of the controversial project that (soc, UT) is expected to last for decades. (USA Today)

Both of the examples belong to the social ecological system. There are a total of 3 clauses in Example 3), and the themes of theses clauses are “Live video”, “a staff member”, and “concerns and opposition”. The first and the third themes are social participants, while the second belongs to individual participant. However, there are 3 clauses altogether in Example 4). The themes of these clauses are “Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings”, “a staff member”, and “the controversial project” respectively. The first and the third themes are social participants, and the second belongs to the type of individual participant.

3.3 The Markedness of the Theme

From the perspective of ecological linguistics, the markedness of the theme can highlight the foregrounding and backgrounding of certain ecological factors in discourse, which can be used to assess the ecological nature of the discourse and explore the reasons behind it, and thereby reveal the ecological orientation in the cognition of the speaker (He & Ma, 2020).

The statistical results show that in experiential theme, China Daily involves one marked theme, while USA Today does not involve marked theme. Therefore, the difference between the two reports in terms of the markedness of the theme is relatively small which can be disregarded. The following example is the only sentence with marked theme in two reports.

5) Among the protesters was Sachiko Uno (ind, MT), who (ind, UT) told Xinhua that she (ind, UT) came to “stop them from polluting the ocean.”  (China Daily)

Example 5) contains the only marked theme in China Daily. As is shown above, there are 3 clauses altogether in the instance. And the themes are “Sachiko Uno”, “who (Sachiko Uno)” and “she (Sachiko Uno)”, all of which are individual participants as themes. And the first theme is marked.

News media is an important sector for disseminating social consciousness and grasping the direction of public opinion (Liu & Chen, 2004). Therefore, in order to enhance public ecological awareness and guide behaviors that are conducive to ecological protection, the media should consciously enhance the ecological nature of their reporting when reporting on ecological issues. Successful news reports should objectively report the details, but also carefully consider the choice of language and the use of vocabulary, so that news reports can achieve the effect of calming people’s hearts, gathering warmth and maintaining social stability (Yang, 2018). When reporting the incident of Japan’s nuclear wastewater discharge, the two media demonstrate certain discrepancies, which may be attributed to variations in purposes with corresponding cultural backgrounds and writing conventions.

4 Conclusion

In the 21st century of rapidly developing internet, news media seems to be playing an increasingly important role. Since the incident of Japan’s nuclear wastewater discharge has emerged, media from different nations immediately expressed their positions. This paper mainly analyzes the same-topic news reports by China Daily and USA Today on Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water in Japan from the perspective of thematic system. It is found that in these two reports, China Daily is more ecological than USA Today in general. However, due to different cultural backgrounds and news reporting styles of different media, there are differences in the way news is reported. This research is of some value in arousing people’s ecological awareness and providing more empirical evidence on thematic system in ecological discourse analysis. In the future study, more sufficient news reports can be chosen as data to improve the validity of the analysis, and the lexico-grammatical systems realizing experiential and interpersonal meanings should also be included.

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