Exploring the Approaches of Tourism-themed Short Videos in Constructing Urban Memory Within the Framework of Cultural Memory

As a product of the integration of digital technology and tourism, tourism-themed short videos have emerged as a core medium for reconstructing urban cultural memories. Grounded in Aleida Assmann’s cultural memory theory, this paper explores how tourism-themed short videos achieve the digital translation and contemporary activation of cultural memory through narrative selection and symbolic encoding. The findings reveal: First, institutional actors reconstruct historical memory through "Authoritative Narratives," while public actors activate local experiences via "Grassroots Narratives," collectively constructing a pluralistic discursive field of memory. Second, short videos transform archival memory into perceptible media symbols through the dual signification of audiovisual codes, enabling dynamic updates of functional memory driven by algorithmic logic. Finally, users anchor virtual symbols in physical spaces through interactive rituals and "media pilgrimage" practices, fostering spatiotemporal continuity of cultural memory and collective identity. Cultural-tourism short videos not only reshape the storage and dissemination logic of urban cultural memory but also transform cultural symbols into the foundation of an imagined community through spatiotemporal interactions mediated by technology, offering theoretical frameworks and practical pathways for the inheritance and innovation of cultural memory in the digital age.