Modern Social Science Research

City promotional videos, showcasing the history, culture, current situation, and future of a city through their unique visual, auditory, and textual effects, are playing an increasingly important role in city branding. Guided by the framework of narrative paradigm, this study used the multimodal discourse analysis method to empirically study the promotional videos of Zhoushan and has found that Zhoushan promotional videos have shortcomings in narrative coherence and fidelity. The practical effect of urban brand construction needs to be improved, particularly in the fields of consistent city positioning, compelling story-telling, uniqueness and competitive edge. As a port city with unique ocean and tourism resources, the successful Zhoushan promotional videos will provide examples and references for the brand construction and dissemination of other cities, thereby enhancing their overall competitiveness.

City branding; Construction; Promotional videos; Narrative paradigm