Constructing politicized national identities: identity positioning by US, China, and Philippine opinion editorials on the Scarborough Shoal conflict

ABSTRACT

How do newspapers’ opinion editorials produce national identities of nations involved in an international conflict? This study examines op-eds in the US, China and the Philippines, which discuss the Scarborough Shoal conflict. Data processing includes word-association calculations and positioning analysis. Results demonstrate self-vested national identities. China-based articles create national identities around the goal of preserving political clout in the Asia-Pacific. US op-eds invert China’s goal and generate identities asserting US regional power. Philippine commentaries portray China as a bully and the US as a defender. Results are discussed in light of the link between politicized national identities and global clashes.

KEYWORDS:

• Politicized national identity
• text mining
• positioning theory
• opinion editorials
• international relations
• Scarborough Shoal

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Cristina J. Montiel is a peace/political psychology professor at the Ateneo de Manila University. She received the Ralph White Lifetime Achievement Award from the APA’s Division of Peace Psychology in 2010 and was recognized by the Psychological Association of the Philippines as their Outstanding Psychologist in 2016. She has written about Peace Psychology in Asia (NY: Springer, 2009), and recently co-edited a special issue on ‘Social Movements and Political and Social Transformation’, Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology (APA, 2018). Montiel likewise worked as consultant for the Philippine Commission on Human Rights and the Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process.

Erwine Dela Paz holds a Masters Degree in Biology, and is a PhD Candidate in the Psychology program of Ateneo de Manila. He is an active member of the Political Psychology Research Lab, and specializes in text mining. He likewise teaches at Ateneo’s Senior High School Department and currently heads its Research Department. He is also a part-time faculty at the Psychology Department of the Loyola Schools in Ateneo.