Decoding drivers of marine ecological culture communication: insights from a Grey-DEMATEL analysis

Under the macro background of taking the construction of ecological civilization construction as the core and coordinating the promotion of the strategies of “Beautiful China” and “Ocean Power”, marine ecological culture, as a composite carrier with ecological value, cultural connotation and governance functions in the national ecological civilization system, is gradually becoming a support for the resource value realization, enhancing cultural soft power and the key link to promote the modernization of marine governance. This study takes Fujian Province as a typical field, extracts the influencing factors of marine ecological culture communication in Fujian Province through grounded theory, constructs a centrality–causality analysis framework based on the Grey DEMATEL model, and systematically identifies and analyzes the driving structure and action path of marine ecological culture communication. The results show that government incentives and support, innovation/digital communication elements, and capital investment are at the core of the factor network. Among them, the first two play a dominant driving role and have a significant spillover effect, while capital investment shows dependence characteristics; the center of the value of marine eco-cultural resources is the highest, which is the core hub for deepening cultural communication and value transformation; resource abundance, purchasing power and tourism demand, and ocean literacy/consumption intention reflect the demand-side traction mechanism and improve the breadth and resilience of communication; the coastal red lines and heritage regulation play a binding intermediary role in the system. The research reveals the inherent structural logic and multi-dimensional driving mechanism of marine ecological culture communication, expands the theoretical boundaries of ecological civilization construction, and verifies the synergy effect of Institutional drivers, innovation synergy, and public participation with Fujian experience, providing a replicable path and policy revelation.