Cross-Media Narratives of City Image: The case of Chongqing, China

Abstract

In the era of media fragmentation, a story world mode brought about by multiple media platforms is on the rise. Cross-media narratives become the core force of city competition by catering to the audience’s preferences while generating rich experiences of different media, promoting the efficient communication of city images to promote city tourism. This case study is based on the cross-media narrative theory, the general narratology theory, the interaction ritual chains theory, etc. It investigates how the contents are produced according to the characteristics of Chongqing city resources and how the image positioning matches different media to complete the common narrative process. Through reviewing previous literature and exploring some cross-media narratives of city image in Chongqing, the main findings of this paper are:1) demonstrative narratives interpret Chongqing’s image artistically and metaphorically to present the contradictions and need in the social space of Chongqing; 2) non-fictional narratives employ multiple combinations of typical city symbols in an enumerative design of narrative symbols to exhibit the superior tourism resources and displays its spirit in the construction and development of the Chonqing city; 3) participatory interactive narratives make the abstract, stereotypical city image that was reflected in traditional film pieces become more modern, urban, and fresh through interaction ritual chains. These results provide great value for the construction of the city image, which can contribute to providing future research a reference.