Narrative Theories and Tasks

Applying the Concept:

How the narrative is organised and structured.

How the conflict is established and how it is resolved

The construction of the characters in the text and how we are led to relate to them

How heroes and villains are created within the text

The importance of sound, music, iconography, mise-en-scene, editing and other technical features in telling the story.

How the themes and ideas are put forward in the story.

Is your narrative open or closed?

Importance of Mise-en-scene

Add authenticity to your singer/ band/characters?

Is it key to establishing setting and relationships?

Is it part of the voyeuristic context e.g. By suggesting a setting associated with sexual allure like a sleazy nightclub or boudoir?

Is it to emphasise an aspirational lifestyle for the audience (John Stewart)?

Vladimir Propp

 After analysing folk tales, Propp developed a theory that within each narrative there are a set of stock characters, which reappear in every storyline.

These roles are:

Hero – Person on the quest

Princess – Prize for the hero

Helper – Helps the hero on his quest

False hero – Somebody who believes they are the hero

Dispatcher – Sends the hero on their quest

Father – Rewards the hero

Villain – Attempts to stop the hero on his quest

Donor – Provides objects to help the hero on his quest

Roland Barthes

 Barthes was a French semiologist who identified 5 different codes by which a narrative engages the attention of the audience.

In order of importance these are:

The enigma code-  the audience is intrigued by the need to solve a problem

The action code – the audience is excited by the need to resolve a problem

The semantic code – the audience is directed towards an additional meaning by way of connotation

The symbolic code – the audience assumes that a character dressed in black is evil or menacing and forms  expectations of his/ her behaviour on this basis

The cultural code – the audience derives meaning in a text from shared cultural knowledge about the way the world works.

Levi-Strauss

 Levi-Strauss’ theory dictated that in every media text there are binary oppositions, or a conflict between two opposites. The audience subsequently are aware of who they should side with, and this technique can also help create a political theme within a text. For example:

Good & Bad

Rich & Poor

Eastern & Western World

Love & Hate

Todorov

 Todorov’s theory states that in a media text there are five stages.

ORIGINAL EQUILIBRIUM  (normality)

  ò

DISRUPTION

  ò

RECOGNITION (of disruption)

  ò

ATTEMPT TO RESTORE original equilibrium

  ò

NEW EQUILIBRIUM

Andrew Goowin

 Is your narrative:

vIllustrative? (images provide a literal representation)

vAmplifying?  (repetition of key meanings and effects to manipulate the audience)

vDisjuncture?: (When the meaning of the song is completely ignored)

In relation to my coursework:

The media product that I have created includeds one main 'character', played by the artist, who leads the video and the narrative elements within the video. There is no hero and villain set up, nor is there conflict established and resolved, as there was not a strong narrative theme within my music video. Sound and music were important within my media product as these helped to emphasise the lyrics and lyric-matching actions that were within the video. Iconography and mise-en-scene were also really important as these elements helped me to focus on setting and emphasise the era portrayed through these features, having a strong setting helped to stengthen the narrative structure of the video. My video did not contain a strong storyline, but the use of an era and 'repeatability' elements helped me to provide an enigma code set-up in which the audience can almost apply their own meaning and narrative to the video through personal interpretation of the text.

Genre Theories and Tasks

'Genre' is a critical tool that helps us study texts and audience responses to texts by dividing them into categories based on common elements.
Within my coursework, I produced a pop genre music video; chosing the pop genre placed my video within a certain 'category' with conventional elements and ideas.

Daniel Chandler (2001) - the word 'genre' comes from the French (and originally Latin) word for 'type'. - Therefore genre defines the 'type' of text that the media product is.

Steve Neale (1980) - "genres are instances of repetition and difference"
- it is essential for genres to deviate ocassionally in order to attract an engage audiences
Within my coursework, I challenges conventions in order to add a 'different' element to my music video; however, I also conformed to ideas that would make sure my media product was distinctly part of the intended genre. For example, the use of bright colours (coventional) and 50's/60's style clothing (unconventional, not 'on-trend', retro).

Andrew Goodwin - Peformance, Illustrative, or Disjuncture?
What generic conventions did you apply?
The media product that I produced at A2 featured the artist in a performance style music video; due to this many of the generic conventions I applied to my texts were related to the artist's performance. For example, the use of lip-syncing, close-up lip-syncing, repetition of chorus shots to add 'repeatability', first person mode of address (directly engaging with the audience), and star image.

Genres are recognisable through the repeated use of generic codes and conventions.

Tom Ryall - suggested that the types of conventions found within genres can be grouped into the four following categories:
Iconographies (symbolic forms associated with the genre)
Narrative (structure, opened/closed)
Representations (characters/stereotypes)
Ideologies (beliefs and ideas of the 'ideal' concept, themes)

Within my coursework, I used elements from all four of these convention categories, in both challenging and conforming ways. I used narrative structures to open and close my music video, however I did not have a strong narrative theme. I also used representations to present the artist in a stereotypical pop star 'glamourous' way, however, some elements of the artist were not stereotypical to the genre (e.g. her 50's clothing, and smoking within her video as this could be seen as controversial). Smoking within the video would be against the normal representation of a pop genre artist, however, it did represent the glamour of the 50's, and as it was acceptable then, this was not put in an encoraging light. This does however also link to ideologies, as many people within the audience may see this as a controversial thing to include, but it is justified by the video being based within the 50's era; this was a comment about glamour of the time. My video also had ideologies about the wealth aspect of glamour, featuring lavish furniture and clothing, as well as expensive items such as 'chanel no.5' perfume. Some iconographies do appear within my video, however, I think that these were related more to the era than the genre, for example, the clothing, the perfume, the idea of smoking, the setting, and other props. There was, however, some iconographies that linked to the conventional ideas of the pop genre such as the use of bright colours.

Audience Theories and Tasks

Powerpoint on Audience Theories and Tasks - http://www.scribd.com/doc/135967048/Audience
Powerpoint on Audience - http://www.scribd.com/doc/136280498/A2-Audience-Presentation


Julian McDougall (2009) (Level 3)

• Suggest that on the online age it is getting harder to conceive a media audience as a stable, identifiable group.
• However, audiences still clearly make sense and give meaning to culture products.
• Key Terms: MASS Audience, NICHE Audience, MAINSTREAM Audience, ALTERNATIVE Audience
• Difficult to define specific audience
• An audience can be described as a "temporary collective" (Originally McQuail, 1972) (Level 2)
• A Changing Niche
• Audiences aren't stable

Is your text popular for a mass audience?

• My magazine was based within the pop genre, making it full of mainstream music choices that would generally be aimed at a mass audience, as this sort of music would be 'chart' music and widely popular.

Historically (until the 19th century, at any rate) the term 'popular' was quite a negative thing, with overtones of vulgarity and triviality. Something not 'nice' or 'respectable'. In the modern world, the term means 'widespread', liked or at least encountered by many people. It has also come to mean 'mass-produced', i.e. made for the 'mass' of people. There is a downside to this, of course, in that it can also be interpreted as 'commercial' or 'trashy'.
This leads into a further consideration, which is the definition of 'popular culture' as 'low' culture, something not for the elite, but for the 'common' people. Cultural value ('high' culture) has been traditionally associated with dominant or powerful groups - those who have appreciation of classical music, art, ballet, opera and so on. 'Low' or popular culture is everything not approved of as 'high'. It is vulgar, common, or 'easy‘. It is postmodern.
Is this relevant to your coursework?

• My magazine was in the pop genre and was therefore aimed at a mass audience. Some may consiquently view the music associated with the magazine as 'commercial' as it is often specifically created and enginered to appeal to the masses through basic over-used and well-known structures, chord sequences, themes and meanings. This may also be interpreted as a product for the 'common' people as beign a product of the pop genre and 'popular culture' in general can place it within a 'low' culture category; this can also create the idea that the product, and 'pop culture' as a whole, may be associated with the elite and/or dominant or powerful groups. However, as the pop genre has a mass audience, it can deliver the most money to those involved in the pop genre end of the music business, making those at the top perhaps considered 'elite' or members of 'high' culture due to their wealth. More generically, the pop genre may be reguarded as 'vulgar', 'common' or 'easy; I don't think that 'vulgar' would be a work associated with pop music as it has a mass audience and is widely popular, however, those that don't like pop music and are opposed to 'commercial' and 'common' popular culture may call pop music 'vulgar'.

Another definition of popular is literally 'of the people', a kind of 'folk' culture and this is an interesting area, because it encompasses the idea of an 'alternative' culture which includes minority groups, perhaps with subverse values. The 'indie' music scene is an example of this. So, 'popular' culture can and sometimes does challenge the 'dominant' cultural power groups.
Can this be applied to your coursework?

• Pop music could be described as music of the people because it appeals to such a widespread audience.

Ien Ang (1991)(Level 4)

• "audiencehood is becoming an ever more multifaceted, fragmented and diversified repertoire of practices and experiments" 
• Diverse
• More niche audiences
• Audiences are harder to define, especially by class categories, more divided
• Specific - Create something specifically for your audience

Do you agree with Ang?

• Yes, I think that modern day society is becoming increasingly diverse, making it harder to define class.

John Hartley (1987)(Level 3)

• Understanding your audience

Hypodermic Theory (1930s)(Level 2/3)

• Injects ideas into the audiences heads
• Influences audience

Plurarlist (Active) Theory(Level 2/3)

• Own Interpretation

Uses and Gratifications Theory(Level 2)

• Escapism, Relationship and Surveilance

Media Language Theories

Charles Sanders Pierce (1931) – details that ‘we only think in signs’. Signs only represent anything when society attributes meaning to them. Anything can be a sign as long as someone interprets it as 'signifying' something - referring to or standing for something other than itself. We interpret things as signs largely unconsciously by relating them to familiar systems of conventions. It is this meaningful use of signs which is at the heart of the concerns of semiotics.

Charles Sanders Pierce (1931) – there are three types of sign that we use every day to create

meaning; iconic, indexical and symbolic signs.

•          Icon/iconic: a mode in which the signifier is perceived as resembling or imitating the signified (recognizably looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it) - being similar in possessing some of its qualities: e.g. a portrait, a cartoon, a scale-model, onomatopoeia, metaphors, 'realistic' sounds in 'programme music', sound effects in radio drama, a dubbed film soundtrack, imitative gestures.

•          Index/indexical: a mode in which the signifier is directly connected in some way (physically or causally) to the signified - this link can be observed or inferred: e.g. 'natural signs' (smoke, thunder, footprints, echoes, non-synthetic odours and flavours), medical symptoms (pain, a rash, pulse-rate), measuring instruments (weathercock, thermometer, clock, spirit-level).

•          Symbol/symbolic: a mode in which the signifier does not resemble the signified but which is fundamentally arbitrary or purely conventional - so that the relationship must be learnt: e.g. language in general (plus specific languages, alphabetical letters, punctuation marks, words, phrases and sentences), numbers, morse code, traffic lights, national flags.

Did your work contain any signs?

Roland Barthes (1967) – signifier/signified – to discuss connotations that can be attributed to denotations (signs).

John Fiske (1982) - “denotation is what is photographed, connotation is how it is photographed”.

Stuart Hall (1980) – texts can be encoded by producers and meaning is decoded by audiences.