The Dissemination of Shanghai's International Image on New Media: A Corpus-Based Study

In the era of new media, the dissemination of a city's international image has become an important component of national soft power development and the construction of external discourse systems. This study employs a corpus-assisted discourse analysis approach, selecting news and online English language materials from parts of English Corpora from January 2020 to January 2024 as the research subjects. Using corpus analysis tools, it quantitatively analyzes the construction and dissemination characteristics of Shanghai’s image on international new media platforms. The findings indicate that international media attention on Shanghai focuses primarily on areas such as economy, trade, and technological innovation, with an overall evaluation trend that is predominantly positive. Shanghai receives particularly positive recognition in aspects like economic and trade cooperation and international exchanges. However, global crises and situational changes have also triggered some negative reporting, mainly centered on public health and policy responses. Based on these findings, this paper proposes pathways to enhance the effectiveness and discursive power of Shanghai's international communication. These include adopting diversified narrative perspectives, improving the comprehensive multimedia communication matrix, and coordinating the construction of both city and national images.