The Study Of Nanjing’s Image In TV Documentary Films

Nowadays, a city’s image undoubtedly becomes one of the “core” competition resources in thefierce competition between cities. A huge mass of TV documentary films, dominated by thegovernment, are being produced, which not only convey the city’s new look and spirits with favorablepublicity to a large extent, but also imply the government’s attitudes towards the positioning of andthe blueprint for the city’s image.The mysteries, vicissitudes and glories of history make generations of TV broadcastersextraordinarily passionate for the city of Nanjing. Since the reform and opening up, a wealth oftelevision films have sprung up to show and interpret this city. Among those documentaries, the shortand elaborate ones have been carefully pruned down and edited, in relation to natural ecology,historical relics, architectural landscape, economic development and people’s life in Nanjing, aimed atprojecting a thriving and increasingly powerful image of Nanjing. However, on the other hand, wefind a series of problems arise, such as excessive glamorizing of the city’s look, the stereotype ofexpression techniques and lack of civil negotiation mechanisms. Just as Lippmann said in PublicOpinion,“Man may not act according to the reality, but they take action according to the picture intheir minds”. The public often form different pictures in their minds by feeling all the related factorsand symbols on TV. The inadequacy and deviation of Nanjing’s image in the documentary films havean impact on the value and meaning of the city image publicity.In2001, the government of Nanjing proposed the slogan of “Establishing an international andmodern Green City in a humanistic spirit”. In2014, the second Youth Olympic Games are to be heldin Nanjing. In the competitive process of development, the administrators and broadcasters of the cityare facing the momentous issue of how to precisely depict the past, the present and the conceivedfuture of Nanjing in the form of films.This thesis takes three documentary films, coproduced by Nanjing Municipal Department ofPublicity and Nanjing TV Station, i.e. the Jinling Trilogy—Imagination In Nanjing (published in2001), Tempo of Nanjing (published in2005), Rhythm of Nanjing (published in2011), as the objectsof study. The work is intended to make clear the image of Nanjing branded in the public mind, with aview to discussing and working out a plan for establishing a new city image in the futuredocumentaries.