Narrative

 

Complete the following questions using the Media Factsheet resource available on the Media Shared drive. 

You'll find them in our Media Factsheet archive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets. You can also access them online here if you use your Greenford Google login.

Read Media Factsheet 14 - Telling Stories: The Media's Use of Narrative and answer the following questions:

1) Give an example from film or television that uses Todorov's narrative structure of equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium. 
Spiderman

2) Complete the activity on page 1 of the Factsheet: find a clip on YouTube of the opening of a new TV drama series (season 1, episode 1). Embed the clip in your blog and write an analysis of the narrative markers that help establish setting, character and plot.

-Lara Jean walking through and brushing through the grass at the start helps establish setting

-she's walking through a field in a red dress - enigma code

-she gets hit by a pillow by Kitty and wakes up from her dream - new equilibrium

3) Provide three different examples from film or television of characters that fit Propp's hero character role.
Spiderman, batman, wonder woman

4) Give an example of a binary opposition.
good vs evil

5) What example is provided in the Factsheet for the way narratives can emphasise dominant ideologies and values?
family guy

6) Why do enigma and action codes (Barthes) offer gratifications for audiences?
Enigma codes are used to create mystery, suspense, and tension. They effectively engage audiences by proposing questions or unfinished actions that await resolution.

7) Write a one-sentence summary of the four different types of TV narrative:

• Episodic narrative (the series): Episodic narrative is a genre of narrative that is divided into a fixed set of episodes. 

• Overarching narrative (the serial): the main narrative thread that runs through an entire series or multiple episodes, connecting the events and characters across episodes while providing a larger context for the story.

• Mixed narrative: Multiple narratives bend the rules for conventional narratives that have a linear structure, one overarching story arc, and a single point of view
• Multi-strand overlapping narrative (soap narrative): Multi-strand describes a narrative category that contains more than one casual chain of events and by implication, multiple protagonists and antagonists

8) How does the Factsheet suggest adverts use narrative?   

Include the idea of the problem and resolution is crucial.