Navigating challenges and psychological engines: case from international communication of Beijing city image

As the capital of China, the international city image of Beijing serves not only as a prominent showcase of rich history and cultural heritage but also functions as a crucial window for promoting Chinese international image. However, with the rapid advancement of digital technology and the onset of the VUCA era, the international communication of Beijing city image has encountered numerous nuanced challenges. Applying the Latent Dirichlet Allocation model for content analysis, along with emotion analysis, a large dataset of posts (N = 1226) concerning the Beijing city image was examined. The analysis revealed that the inefficient international communication approaches and cultural output, which make it difficult to bridge the cultural gap between high- and low-context communication, were the primary challenges in modeling the international city image of Beijing. In response, the study proposed the construction of an exposure-perception-identification model of international communication with Chinese cultural characteristics, as well as the innovation of a vivid and dynamic city image of Beijing as effective communication strategies to address and navigate these challenges.