Communication of City Image through Urban Symbols on Social Media: Take Nanjing as an Example

This article explores how individuals acquire information about Nanjing’s urban symbols through Chinese social media platforms in their daily lives. Two questionnaires were administered to assess respondents’ knowledge of Nanjing’s symbols and the channels through which they receive related information. Symbols identified from the first questionnaire were analyzed using Exploratory Factor Analysis and subsequently grouped into four categories. These four categories of symbols, along with seven major Chinese social media platforms, were then examined through multivariate regression analysis. The results revealed that compared with food symbols Weixin (WeChat) was more effective in communicating landmark symbols and Xiaohongshu was comparatively less effective in disseminating cultural symbols.