Preamble

Research on Multimodal Discourse Narrative of Cultural Tourism Micro-Dramas in the Vertical Screen Era
Gao Xianchun, Qu Jinpei, Zhao Xuesong
(School of Media and Film, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221009)

Abstract

[Objective] This study aims to explore how cultural tourism micro-dramas utilize multimodal discourse to achieve meaning expression. [Methodology] Employing literature review and case analysis methods, this paper adopts the multimodal discourse analysis framework as its theoretical foundation to conduct a discourse analysis of the "video-based" communication morphology of cultural tourism micro-dramas across five dimensions—culture, context, meaning, form, and expression—from visual and auditory modalities. [Findings] Multimodal discourse expression, primarily visual and secondarily auditory, constitutes the main discursive mode of cultural tourism micro-dramas. Grounded in regional characteristics as their cultural foundation and employing an accessible discursive tone, these dramas leverage technology-enabled audiovisual integration to immerse audiences in the charm of local cultural tourism. [Conclusion] Moving forward, cultural tourism micro-dramas must adhere to the principle of "content is king," transforming cultural tourism elements into artistic elements while delving deeper into their cultural connotations. Simultaneously, they should leverage big data to achieve precise audience targeting and cultivate a genuine cultural tourism integration industry chain.

Keywords: micro-drama; multimodal; discourse expression; visual narrative; audiovisual communication
CLC Number: G244
Document Code: A
Article ID: 1671-0134(2025)02-25-07
DOI: 10.19483/j.cnki.11-4653/n.2025.02.003
Citation Format: Gao Xianchun, Qu Jinpei, Zhao Xuesong. Research on Multimodal Discourse Narrative of Cultural Tourism Micro-Dramas in the Vertical Screen Era [J]. China Media Technology, 2025, 32(2): 25-31.

With the advent of the vertical screen era, micro-dramas have emerged as a novel content form, rapidly sweeping across the internet due to their lightweight nature, fast pacing, and rich expressive power. Among them, cultural tourism micro-dramas, following the "micro-drama + cultural tourism" model, have become a significant genre. These works integrate cultural tourism elements into their narratives, encompassing but not limited to traditional culture, intangible cultural heritage, historic cities, national sentiment, and urban civilization. Leveraging online audiovisual platforms, they creatively intertwine plot, regional culture, and tourism, deeply merging visual and auditory modalities to concretely express distinctive regional customs. Through vivid and diverse presentation forms, they bridge the gap between the public and local destinations, transcend temporal and spatial limitations, and evoke widespread attention and enthusiasm. This paper investigates, through relevant examples and from the perspectives of culture, context, meaning, form, and expression, how cultural tourism micro-dramas utilize interactions among different modalities to achieve holistic meaning construction in multimodal discourse.

1. Literature Review

As network technology rapidly advances, particularly with digital technologies represented by new media, traditional communication and dissemination methods are undergoing profound transformation, and the language-culture transmission system is being redefined and reconstructed. Single symbolic modalities can no longer satisfy audience demands, leading to increasingly diverse semiotic modes. Modern network audiovisual technologies provide more options for language-culture dissemination, enabling people to utilize different semiotic modalities to maximize discursive expression [1]. Modality refers to symbolic systems—including images, written and oral symbols, gestures, sounds, odors, etc.—that are interpreted through specific perceptual processes [2]. Discourse represents communication methods within particular contexts, influenced by ideological concepts, value orientations, and cultural modes of thinking [3]. Its manifestations are diverse, encompassing not only linguistic modalities such as sound and text but also non-linguistic modalities like expressions, actions, and melodies. Through the combination of linguistic and non-linguistic modalities, a holistic discursive meaning is collectively constructed, enriching and dimensionalizing transmitted information and thereby influencing audience reception and comprehension.

R. Barthes pioneered multimodal discourse research in his 1977 essay "Rhetoric of the Image," where he first explored the mutual influence between visual images and language in meaning transmission, laying the theoretical foundation for subsequent multimodal discourse analysis [4]. Since the inaugural International Conference on Multimodal Discourse in 2002, over four decades of development and refinement have transformed multimodal discourse analysis from a singular research field into an integrated theoretical model. Academic circles categorize multimodal discourse analysis frameworks into "three major schools": first, the "Systemic-Functional Semiotics" from a social semiotic perspective advocated by Kress and van Leeuwen, which focuses on the interaction between images and text; second, Norris's "Multimodal Interaction Analysis," which emphasizes the synergistic effects of language, gestures, movements, and proximity in human communication; and third, the "Corpus Linguistics Multimodal Discourse Analysis" represented by Gu, which stresses the interaction between sensory perception and external media environments [5].

Since 2003, domestic academia has begun focusing on multimodal discourse analysis. Li Zhanzi provided an in-depth interpretation of the multimodal discourse analysis framework proposed by Kress et al., emphasizing its significance for linguistics and language education [6]. Subsequently, domestic scholars conducted extensive research on multimodal discourse. For instance, Zhang Deluo proposed a new comprehensive framework based on overseas scholars' work, dividing discursive expression components into four main aspects—cultural level, contextual level, content level, and expression level—while highlighting the importance of understanding formal characteristics of different modalities and their interrelationships in multimodal discourse research, thus offering new perspectives for language education and communication practice [7]. Pan Yanyang, from a cognitive linguistics perspective, proposed a "Cognitive-Functional" analytical approach. Drawing on concepts of metaphor and metonymy from cognitive linguistics, she argued that symbolic features, potential forms of symbolic meaning, and cognitive mechanisms of discourse are key elements in multimodal discourse analysis. She also emphasized that metaphor and metonymy, as fundamental human cognitive mechanisms, exist not only in linguistic modalities but also extensively in non-linguistic modalities [8].

This study builds upon these relatively mature theoretical frameworks and models of multimodal discourse analysis, departing from Norris's "Multimodal Interaction Analysis" framework. Through the interaction among linguistic modalities (images, text, background music) and non-linguistic modalities, it conducts multimodal discourse analysis of cultural tourism micro-dramas within the main framework of culture, context, meaning, form, and expression.

2. Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Cultural Tourism Micro-Dramas

2.1 Cultural Level: Regional Characteristics and Narrative Co-shape Local Culture

The cultural level is the crucial dimension enabling multimodal communication. It determines not only communication traditions, patterns, and technologies but also directly influences the interpretive capacity for situational contexts [9]. Symbols serve as important carriers of cultural connotation and value. Cultural tourism micro-dramas visually present cultural elements through image modalities or cleverly integrate them with narrative plots, thereby highlighting the historical and cultural stories they embody and subtly showcasing their latent regional cultural charm and humanistic sentiments. This establishes a profound cultural foundation that sets the tone for cultural tourism micro-dramas, achieving a "soul collision and sublimation" between audiences and destinations.

For example, the cultural tourism micro-drama A Dream on Starry River produced by Suzhou Radio and Television brilliantly combines Suzhou's regional characteristics with intangible cultural heritage. The inheritance of intangible cultural heritage inevitably relies on specific symbolic signs, with image modalities being their most direct presentation form in cultural tourism micro-dramas. Image modalities, as visual symbols encompassing both dynamic and static images, achieve discursive expression through visual effects. The drama presents Suzhou's scenic beauty, craftsmanship beauty, and lifestyle beauty through image modalities such as the well-arranged ancient city, gardens with changing vistas at every step, fashionable and trendy parks, exquisite and elegant Suzhou embroidery, profound Suzhou fans, and classic and enticing traditional cuisine. Through different shot scales and camera movements, intangible cultural heritage elements like Su embroidery, Song brocade, and Pingtan are ubiquitous throughout the drama—never explicitly mentioning culture yet embodying it everywhere. Each frame and scene's exquisite cinematographic language makes the "Suzhou flavor" in the shots almost "overflow" from the screen. This cultural tourism micro-drama transforms intangible cultural heritage elements into concrete visual expressions, allowing audiences to experience Suzhou's charm through the fusion of intangible cultural heritage and Suzhou garden culture, making traditional culture "come alive" and enabling audiences to perceive its cultural essence visually.

Beyond expressing meaning through concrete imagery symbols, characters can also be endowed with metaphorical significance. By assigning characters personality traits that symbolize the image characteristics of a particular era or group, implicit meaning expression is achieved. For instance, in the cultural tourism micro-drama Princess, Please Return Home, the drama employs a dual-timeline approach, paralleling two completely different "princess returning home" stories from ancient and modern times, creating a new perspective for cultural narrative. The male protagonist is a soldier from Shuofang who accidentally travels to modern times while escorting a princess back to Chang'an; the female protagonist is a self-media anchor dedicated to fulfilling her grandfather's wish to bring the panda "Princess" back to China. The story dreams back to Chang'an through the ancient tale of escorting a princess for a marriage alliance, and revisits Xi'an through the live-streaming story of the panda "Princess's" return. This unique narrative perspective showcases the same responsibility and commitment across different spacetimes. The male protagonist symbolizes countless soldiers who silently dedicated themselves to national stability and border security—far from their homeland, steadfast in their posts, seeking no reward, and silently guarding national dignity and glory with their lives and blood. The female protagonist symbolizes the new generation's inheritance of traditional culture and cherishing of familial bonds. Through the characterization of ancient and modern figures, the drama reshapes elements across time, enriching narrative layers while revealing the millennia-old cultural heritage and humanistic sentiments of the ancient city of Xi'an.

2.2 Contextual Level: Discursive Scope and Mode Co-construct Situational Context

The contextual level in multimodal discourse analysis refers to the environment where multimodal symbolic resources interact, representing a comprehensive set of environmental factors influencing the entire discourse [10]. Linguist Halliday posited that context includes both situational context and cultural context, with situational context comprising three components: discursive scope, discursive tenor, and discursive mode.

Discursive scope refers to the content of a text, including the venue of actions, participants, and the identities of communicative parties. It runs throughout cultural tourism micro-dramas, forming the foundation for plot construction and character interaction. It determines how characters communicate, how images are shaped, and how connections with audiences are established. For example, the cultural tourism micro-drama Bringing You into the Moon is primarily set in Sangzhi County, Zhangjiajie City, Hunan Province. The narrative follows a man and woman who adhere to a non-marriage philosophy as they flee from a betrothal banquet arranged by their parents, encountering people, emotions, and objects along the way. As the protagonists' experiences unfold, the drama paints a poetic and leisurely pastoral landscape, showcasing the region's vibrant and rich folk customs. Centered on the theme of "young people bravely pursuing love and freedom," the drama connects Sangzhi's landscapes, humanities, and folk characteristics—from scenic shot presentations and intangible cultural heritage Sangzhi folk songs to local residents' authentic performances—all serving the core idea of comprehensively showcasing Sangzhi's beauty in scenery, cuisine, music, and people, outlining a healing "cyber dreamland" for contemporary youth. Consequently, Sangzhi County has been nicknamed by netizens as Hunan's "Altay."

Discursive tenor refers to the social role relationship between sender and receiver during communication, which in cultural tourism micro-dramas is mainly manifested in character dialogue. These dramas primarily achieve the goals of shaping city images and disseminating characteristic culture through the fusion of regional features and narrative plots. Therefore, during discursive communication, speakers mostly adopt an approachable, accessible narrative tone—either straightforward or humorously witty—to shorten the distance with audiences and conduct social interaction within an equal and harmonious atmosphere. For instance, in Bringing You into the Moon, aside from the two protagonists, most actors are local Sangzhi residents who communicate directly in Sangzhi dialect. This discursive tenor immerses audiences directly into the scenes while vividly showcasing the warmth, sincerity, and folk simplicity of Sangzhi people.

Discursive mode refers to the communication forms and channels in social interaction, manifested in visual, auditory, and integrated audiovisual aspects. Visually, emotions and intentions are conveyed through body language, facial expressions, and eye contact; auditorily, emotions are expressed through pitch, volume, rhythm, and speed; linguistically, it includes oral and written language, with oral language being primary. The Fujian cultural tourism micro-drama Come to Fujian, Be Happy exemplifies this through the story of grandparents reuniting, falling in love, and staying together in Fujian after decades of separation. The drama incorporates internet memes such as "twilight romance," "straightforward romance," and "moving-house camping," using the distinctive Fujian accent as its primary discursive expression. Continuous creative ideas and plot reversals maintain audience curiosity and immersion, making the micro-drama an instant hit upon release. The grandparents' witty and profound expressions constantly resonate with audiences, making them feel as if they are present and truly experiencing the烟火气 (human touch) of Min-style life. Beyond linguistic expression, the grandparents' image construction is also ingeniously crafted. Their trendy outfits, bright and warm smiles, and playful, lively body movements deeply infect audiences, allowing them to genuinely feel the elders' happy love and Fujian people's optimistic and positive life attitude, stimulating audiences' desire to travel to Fujian. Viewers flood the弹幕 (bullet comments) with messages like "Want to check in at every scenic spot!"

2.3 Meaning Level: Modal Symbols and Symbolic Metaphors Co-compose Meaningful Expressions

The meaning level in multimodal discourse refers to the meanings and information collectively constructed by various modal symbols, encompassing understanding of symbols, concepts, cultural backgrounds, and usage rules in discursive expression, including both literal and metaphorical meanings. Multimodal metaphor refers to metaphorical forms that transcend single images or symbols, involving associations, comprehension, and reception across multiple levels and utilizing various symbols for expression [11]. Metaphor is not only a fundamental method of semantic expression but also a crucial technique for human meaning expression and value transmission in multimodal discourse.

For instance, the Hunan cultural tourism micro-drama Your Island Has Arrived primarily employs metaphorical techniques for narrative discourse. Centered on the light-hearted daily life of male and female protagonists in Taohuayuan Scenic Area, it presents an idyllic lifestyle reminiscent of a utopia. The natural landscapes of Taohuayuan—Qingu, Qinjie, and Peach Blossom Valley—are presented frame by frame through cinematographic language, with its natural filters and rich pastoral atmosphere vividly displayed. This pastoral narrative signifies not merely the story's location but also serves as a metaphor for lifestyle and spiritual pursuit. According to legend, Qingu in Taohuayuan Scenic Area is precisely the path where the Wuling fisherman stumbled upon the utopia in The Peach Blossom Spring. Today, through the protagonists' nighttime journey along Qin Stream, watching fireflies dance and flower shadows flutter, the drama metaphorically expresses people's pursuit of the natural, tranquil lifestyle embodied by the classical spiritual culture of "Peach Blossom Spring." The region's picturesque natural scenery provides an excellent visual backdrop for the plot, which together with historical, cultural, and folk heritage constructs the cultural context for the story and the emotional foundation for characters. From visuals to plot, from emotions to culture, the drama collectively shapes the cultural image of a "New Peach Blossom Spring" under modern semantic deconstruction, implicitly expressing contemporary people's yearning for an ideal life akin to a "paradise."

2.4 Formal Level: Technological Transformation and AI Empowerment Co-create Innovative Expression

In the traditional media era, horizontally oriented videos with width greater than height remained the default standard format. Even when screens transitioned from large to small—from television screens to individual mobile phone screens—horizontal videos still dominated. However, with the popularization of smartphones and the rapid development of mobile internet, public media consumption habits have undergone tremendous changes, with an increasing number of vertically oriented videos (height greater than width) entering public view. Content producers and users on platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou have begun to accept and adapt to the production and dissemination of vertical videos. From a technical perspective, the sweeping prevalence of vertical format across various media is not coincidental but rather an inevitable result of continuous adaptation to mobile internet usage scenarios, reflecting acute awareness of audience viewing preferences in the network audiovisual era [12]. Entering the 5G era, internet development has shifted from competing for traffic to competing for user engagement. Beyond solving the dissemination channel issue—i.e., "making users visible"—it must further address the problem of "making users keep watching," matching specific content with specific user habits, mindsets, and interests [13]. Consequently, major social media platforms, in their quest for user engagement, have actively responded to vertical videos based on differentiated development strategies, promoting technological innovation and upgrades. These advancements span not only content production and distribution channels but also extend to user interaction, data analysis, and information flow placement, collectively creating development opportunities for vertical-screen cultural tourism micro-dramas. The vividness and interactivity of vertical videos engender a sense of presence during usage, which not only caters to users' media consumption habits but also influences media usage values, making them more suitable for the current era of mobile media scenarios.

Beyond upgraded usage forms accompanying technological transformation, the accelerated development of artificial intelligence algorithms, along with concepts like the metaverse and Web3.0 challenging traditional network forms, have made AI-Generated Content (AIGC) a significant trend in network audiovisual resource development in the digital age. In the digital era, single-dimensional narrative models can no longer satisfy public demands. Immersive content output combining audio and visual elements disseminates content from an in-situ perspective, further expanding cultural communication effects. Consequently, driven by industrial development, AIGC's advantages—including large-scale corpus characteristics, multimodal fusion and conversion, and cross-scenario generation and application have collectively propelled its explosive growth. The strong convergence of AIGC and cultural tourism micro-dramas—both booming fields—has created a new form that adds color to the micro-drama market and brings more innovation and possibilities. Works such as Chinese Mythology, AI, My China, Handan Dream: AI in Warring States, and Encounter Chang'an present new multimodal cultural experiences in cultural tourism micro-dramas with AI assistance. Taking Sanxingdui: Future Apocalypse as an example, AI technology permeates the entire process from creative conception to presentation. Large language models provide continuous inspiration for plot creation, while text-to-image generation transforms designers' imaginations into reality. In this micro-drama, AIGC not only assists in scriptwriting but also participates in character design, scene rendering, and multiple other stages. It generates script frameworks and character settings that meet plot requirements, and with AI empowerment, each scene becomes vivid and lifelike, making audiences feel as if they are in a real and stunning future world. This embodied communication, enhanced by future technology, brings realistic presence, greatly satisfying audiences' visual and auditory senses and enabling them to feel more immersed. This further enhances the appeal and viewability of cultural tourism micro-dramas, allowing audiences to more intuitively experience the charm of ancient Shu civilization. Vision is humanity's most direct and important sense; through visual stimulation, people perceive objects' size, brightness, color, and movement, obtaining various information crucial for survival. At least 80% of external information is obtained through vision [14]. AI empowerment transforms abstract imagination into reality, helping micro-dramas present scenes and special effects difficult to achieve through traditional filming, "reviving" historical and cultural heritage, and enhancing visual expressiveness and impact. This deep exploration not only increases audience interest in historical culture but also provides new pathways for traditional cultural inheritance and innovation.

2.5 Expression Level: Visual Primacy and Auditory Supplementation Co-evoke User Resonance

In the multimodal discourse analysis framework, the expression level represents a crucial interface for direct contact and interaction with receivers, encompassing both linguistic and non-linguistic media. Linguistic media can be further divided into pure language and paralanguage forms. Pure language media can be subdivided into two subcategories—sound and written symbols—which primarily convey information directly to ensure effective message reach. Paralinguistic media includes elements such as intonation strength, volume level, font, and font size, whose main function is to supplement and enhance linguistic information transmission. Non-linguistic media encompasses broader domains, including communicators' body movements, facial expressions, eye contact, and tools used during communication, which can transmit additional information, expand linguistic expressiveness, and convey emotions and attitudes that language alone cannot fully express. Linguistic and non-linguistic media complement each other, collaboratively promoting the integrity of the communication system and jointly accomplishing meaning construction and dissemination in multimodal discourse.

In cultural tourism micro-dramas, pure linguistic media mainly manifests as character dialogue and voice-over narration, facilitating audience perception and understanding through concrete textual symbols. Paralinguistic media forms include background music, sound effects, voice quality, and intonation. Different scenarios, accompanied by characters' emotional changes, exhibit variations in tone expression. The integration of appropriate background music further enhances audience immersion and deepens their audiovisual experience. Non-linguistic media includes characters' gestures, movements, expressions, and technology-enabled visual presentations such as AR, XR, CG, and holographic projections. For instance, the cultural tourism micro-drama AI Monkey King, centered on Huaguoshan and Liandao Scenic Area, utilizes AI technology to visually recreate iconic landscapes such as the Great Sage Hall, Nine-Dragon Bridge, and millennium-old ginkgo trees. Under AI rendering, these characteristic scenic areas transform into the fantastical wonders of Huaguoshan, closely connected with the Monkey King's story and deeply integrating AI technology with the essence of Chinese classical literature to excavate cultural connotations. Beyond the aesthetic reproduction of environmental scenes, character imagery, storytelling, and emotional transmission have also become more refined. To provide audiences with more immersive experiences, visual elements are diversely paired with different sound effects. The entire drama's background music and dubbing are "personalized customization," achieving strong associations between sound and visuals through situational sound adaptability, presenting a perfect audiovisual aesthetic feast.

3. Multimodal Discourse Narrative Communication Strategies for Cultural Tourism Micro-Dramas

3.1 Discursive Foundation: Regional Culture as the Root to Awaken Cultural Identity

One criterion for measuring the quality of a cultural tourism micro-drama is its cultural value—whether the presented local cultural characteristics can form distinct cultural memory points and awaken audience cultural identity. Cultural value is the soul of cultural tourism micro-dramas. As a new carrier for cultural dissemination, cultural tourism micro-dramas' accessibility and broad-spectrum appeal in audience reception endow them with tremendous vitality for extending people's cultural experience space [15]. These dramas organically integrate cultural tourism elements with micro-drama scenarios, plots, and characters to showcase unique regional characteristics and cultural connotations. As a new convergence point for traditional culture and mainstream values, they demonstrate regional cultural depth through unique narrative charm, successfully connecting regional characteristics with audience cultural identity, ultimately achieving the transition from online story "planting grass" (creating desire) to offline tourism "drainage" (attracting visitors). The "micro-drama + cultural tourism" model, as an emerging cultural communication paradigm, effectively drives the explosive popularity of filming locations and related classic cultural tourism scenes through creative micro-drama content, bringing new客流 (tourist flow) and attention to cultural tourism destinations while providing rich materials and backgrounds for micro-drama creation.

Cultural tourism integration represents the phenomenon and process where culture and tourism industries transcend traditional boundaries, mutually penetrate, synergistically develop, and collectively build a "development community" [16]. Culture is the soul of tourism, while tourism is the carrier of culture; the two complement and promote each other. Culture endows tourism with profound connotation and unique charm, while tourism serves as an important pathway for cultural dissemination and experience. Cultural tourism micro-dramas not only integrate cultural elements in content creation but also incorporate regional cultural elements into IP design, achieving IP落地 (grounded implementation) transformation for cultural tourism micro-dramas. This attracts audiences to explore the cultural values behind them and transmits profound cultural experiences. Regional cultural IPs inject deep cultural connotations into the tourism industry through unique cultural symbols and imagery, awakening audience cultural identity and enhancing emotional connections between users and destinations [17]. Through new content, models, and business forms, cultural tourism micro-dramas create new consumption scenarios, fully utilize local cultural tourism resources for IP-based operations, assist in developing related cultural tourism products and services, and truly achieve the vision of disseminating regional culture, expanding cultural tourism consumption, and empowering cultural tourism development.

3.2 Discursive Narrative: Emotional Resonance as the Guide to Evoke Affective Resonance

Empathy, a crucial concept in psychology also known as transference or compassion, describes how individuals perceive or imagine others' emotions and experience them to some extent [18]. This process can be divided into three levels: first, emotional contagion, the most basic form of empathy; second, perspective-taking, the ability to understand and perceive situations from others' viewpoints; and third, empathic concern, which builds upon the first two levels and involves altruistic motivation and "prosocial behavior" [19]. There exists a natural connection between empathy and communication. Empathetic communication refers to the formation and transmission or diffusion of shared or similar emotions and feelings among individuals or groups [20]. Cultural tourism micro-dramas primarily utilize the fusion of multiple visual and auditory modalities—including narrative plots, character development, and regional characteristics—to trigger audience emotional empathy, form attitudinal identification, and subsequently generate supportive behaviors.

In the mobile internet era, the public constitutes an emotional community—a networked public form connected or disconnected through emotional expression in the internet technology environment [21], with various media platforms acting as drivers for "public emotion" formation. The scenography, musicality, and participatory nature of cultural tourism micro-dramas amplify audience emotional empathy, while technological empowerment from media transformation enables realistic scene reproduction that concretizes abstract regional cultural imagery. This not only enhances the viewability of cultural tourism micro-dramas but also significantly strengthens emotional resonance between audiences and the dramas. Emotional resonance is not merely an impulse driven by emotion but also involves rational consciousness and represents the result of audience cognitive processing and identification. This means that only through empathetic narrative approaches that interconnect story scenarios and cultural atmospheres can cultural tourism micro-dramas enable audiences to spontaneously accept their transmitted cultural tourism value orientations on a fundamental level.

3.3 Discursive Expression: Media Convergence as the Guide to Link Diverse Platforms

Since media convergence was elevated to a national strategy, it has accelerated its transition from "addition" to "integration." Against the backdrop of rapidly changing technological, economic, and social environments, and with advances in artificial intelligence technology, AI large models such as ChatGPT and Sora are expanding from generating text and images to generating video content, signaling our entry into a video-centered society [22]. New communication forms like "short video +" and "micro-drama +" are emerging, while broadcasting media actively construct strategic frameworks for "future television" and "grand audiovisual landscape," all heralding the arrival of a "video-based" society. "Video-based" communication is a product of digital age development and an innovative form of media convergence, with technology empowerment reshaping media业态 (industry forms) and audience viewing habits. Short videos represent a new media form and content presentation method in the video domain. Micro-dramas, as an emerging audiovisual media form, owe their emergence and development to digital technology. Micro-dramas enable short videos to continuously exert their role in media convergence, facilitating deep media integration development through new media forms.

With the intervention of "permanently online" and "permanently present" mobile devices, the 9:16 vertical screen ratio vertically elongates audiences' visual focus points. Changes in frame dimensions endow videos with revitalized capabilities. On one hand, vertical frames more prominently highlight characters and themes, creating more three-dimensional character images that allow audiences to observe detailed character changes clearly and directly. On the other hand, changes in frame space create a "I am the center" gaze pleasure and scene experience, stimulating audiences' curiosity for deep interaction with characters and narrowing the distance between characters and audiences, making audiences feel as if they are physically present. Moreover, in a fast-paced lifestyle, fragmented dissemination is highly favored. Micro-dramas leverage social media platforms' advantages of wide coverage, deep penetration, and strong引流 (drainage/attracting) capabilities, launching in fragmented forms across major platforms to create comprehensive, multi-layered communication matrices. Cultural tourism micro-dramas are no exception, establishing accounts on platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili, and WeChat to build momentum for dissemination and form chain-like network communication. Beyond attracting traffic on media platforms, more importantly, they conduct vertical exploration and in-depth cultivation in cultural tourism, using high-quality regional characteristic resources and cultural historical materials as textual support. Based on user viewing habits, they customize story content, rapidly engaging audiences through a creative strategy of "strong plot + strong empathy + fast pace + minimal铺垫 (foreshadowing)" to produce refined, mainstream content output. "Content is king" has always been regarded as the guiding principle in communication. Only through continuous content innovation, telling stories close to life, and moving audiences with content can cultural tourism micro-dramas achieve the ultimate goal of driving cultural tourism development through micro-dramas.

In summary, visual and auditory modalities constitute the primary discursive expression methods of cultural tourism micro-dramas. Innovating the communication model of local cultural tourism industries across five discursive levels—culture, context, meaning, form, and expression—these dramas present local natural landscapes and social patterns to audiences through audiovisual multimodal presentation and dramatic interpretation, interpreting local cultural characteristics. The logical strategy by which multimodal discourse narrative in cultural tourism micro-dramas facilitates local cultural tourism development (see [TABLE:1]) is as follows: grounded in regional characteristic elements as the cultural foundation, employing an accessible,深入浅出 (easy-to-understand), and通俗易懂的 (comprehensible) discursive tone, and utilizing multimodal discursive expressions through people, scenery, objects, and emotions, these dramas help audiences intuitively and clearly experience the charm of local cultural tourism and comprehend regional cultural characteristics through visual, auditory, and integrated audiovisual modes and technology-enhanced embodied communication. This activates audiences' interest in exploring regional traditional culture and truly realizes the concept of "traveling with micro-dramas."

Cultural tourism micro-dramas not only showcase regional cultural characteristics but also successfully bring local destinations into the public eye and achieve "breaking the circle" effects through ancient-modern fusion and distinctive cultural symbols, leading a "new trend" of "checking in with micro-dramas." They serve as both new carriers for local promotion and innovative models for multi-business transformation and marketing裂变 (fission). Their narrative form, integrating technology and art, constructs visualized palm-sized lifestyles, bringing "poetry and distant places" right before our eyes—a form of audiovisual discourse in a deeply developed mediated society.

Meanwhile, with the widespread application of AIGC technology, the refined development of cultural tourism micro-dramas holds more possibilities. AI large models' text-to-script, text-to-image, and image-to-video technologies deeply participate in various stages of micro-drama production, including screenwriting, art design, dubbing, and music composition. This enables cultural tourism micro-dramas to pursue grand scenes at low cost, greatly expanding their creative boundaries.

Thus, cultural tourism micro-dramas must, on one hand, adhere to the principle of "content is king," persist in continuous content innovation, and creatively transform local characteristic cultural tourism resources into artistic elements that are cleverly integrated into plots rather than simply植入 (product-placed). They must delve deeply into the cultural connotations, historical heritage, and emotional values behind cultural tourism resources, enabling audiences to broaden their horizons while forming emotional resonance and strengthening their desire to explore cultural tourism destinations. On the other hand, they should reasonably utilize technological empowerment to improve production efficiency, injecting digital-intelligent elements such as AI animation, AI video, and virtual digital humans to enrich content forms. Simultaneously, relying on big data analysis and algorithmic recommendation technology to conduct deep mining of user behavior enables precise audience targeting for cultural tourism micro-dramas, improving content dissemination effectiveness and conversion rates. For commercial monetization of cultural tourism micro-dramas, they should design corresponding cultural and creative products around plots based on multimodal narratives at specific cultural, contextual, meaning, form, and expression levels. Creating derivatives based on characters and tourist attractions in the drama builds a complete industry chain from cultural tourism content production and product development to cultural consumption.

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Author Biographies:
Gao Xianchun (born 1976), male, from Yanzhou, Shandong, Professor at the School of Media and Film, Jiangsu Normal University. Research interests: new media communication.
Qu Jinpei (born 1999), female, from Nantong, Jiangsu, Master's student at Jiangsu Normal University. Research interests: new media communication.
Zhao Xuesong (born 2000), male, from Xinzhou, Shanxi, Master's student at Jiangsu Normal University. Research interests: new media communication.

(Executive Editor: Li Jing)