[Cultural Analysis]

Based on the east wind of the Asian Winter Games, Harbin's ice and snow world has attracted much attention and has attracted public attention and yearning for the Ice and Snow City on social media. Recently, with the help of a variety of online social forms, the images of many cities have been widely disseminated, presenting a diverse and vivid new atmosphere. From the aroma of barbecue on the streets of Zibo to the thousand-year-old past revealed by the city walls of Xi'an, from the quiet flow of the clear spring in Jinan to the strong fireworks that make people nostalgic in the alleys of Chengdu... Many cities are using the powerful communication power of various types of media to create a unique and charming city image, so as to create their own brands and enhance the city's popularity.

The image of the city is the charm of a city and a precious business card that the city has handed to the world. It is a powerful magnetic field that attracts resources from multiple parties and a key key to enhancing urban competitiveness. At present, urban managers urgently need to integrate resources from multiple parties, gather efficient and diverse communication forces, shape the city's image, promote effective communication, and make the city stand out in the wave of the times. Local governments should formulate scientific and reasonable communication strategies, carefully explore and display urban characteristics, and steadily promote urban image dissemination work in stages and goals.

As the main force in the dissemination of urban image, the media is a window connecting a city with the external world. The city’s cultural heritage and development achievements can be fully disseminated and promoted with the help of media power. Traditional media use their high authority and high credibility to explore the cultural connotation and social governance experience of the city. Through special reports, in-depth interviews, documentaries, etc., they present rich and diverse urban elements to the public, allowing people to deeply feel the pulse of urban development. Social media is convenient and interactive, and attracts public attention and participation through vivid methods such as short videos and live broadcasts. Traditional media and social media echo each other and integrate each other, making the city image more distinct and prominent, guiding citizens to fully understand the city they live in, and enhancing their sense of identity and belonging to the city. At the same time, the shaping and dissemination of urban images will also attract countless tourists to stop and experience, attracting foreign capital to develop, and increasing the influence and appeal of the city.

Citizens are the main body of urban construction and are also the shaper, interpreter and disseminator of urban image. For example, in the process of shaping and disseminating urban image, the Chengdu Municipal Government has created the "Chengdu Urban Memory" project, built an online and offline interaction platform, and encouraged every enthusiastic citizen to actively participate in the data collection work of "protecting urban archives". The childhood stories full of childlike fun in the old streets and alleys, the warm past events in traditional snack bars, and the precious emotions carried by old objects. These "individual memories" are like stars, forming the unique and charming memories of the city. They not only enrich the city's image and inherit the urban context, but also like a fire, igniting the enthusiasm in the hearts of citizens and conveying the warmth of the city to all parts of the world.

In the process of disseminating urban image, there is another local group worthy of attention - cultural experts, intangible cultural heritage inheritors, Internet celebrities, etc. With their professional expertise, they are active on the vast stage of social media. These "city ambassadors" tell the rich and colorful city stories that the people love to hear in a narrative way closer to the audience and more affinity, injecting continuous vitality into the dissemination of the city's image. For example, ceramic artists in Longquan, Zhejiang show their exquisite ceramic production craftsmanship through live broadcasts, closely combining the image of traditional porcelain with modern artistic innovation, making ceramic culture concrete and popular, and enhancing the attractiveness of urban culture.

The new leap in urban image dissemination is inseparable from the coordinated linkage of all parties. The government, media, the public and the private "city ambassadors" need to work together. All parties in society are like various voices in symphony, cooperating with each other and forming a joint force, playing a beautiful melody of the city's image. In the future, we should continuously improve this coordination mechanism, give full play to the advantages of all parties, make the city's image dissemination more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and then create a good external environment for the sustainable development of the city and help urban construction make new breakthroughs.

Author: Ji Dan (Associate Professor, Shanghai Jiaotong University)