MIGRAIN: Narrative

 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. 
The James Bond Movies follow Todorov's narrative structure as the films start with the equilibrium of everything being at peace and then the disequilibrium is a villain is taking over or someone is in danger, etc. and then James Bond goes to save/solve the problem and them the new equilibrium is the peace is restored.

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 the setting, character and plot.

In this opening scene of "The Boys" using Todorov's equilibrium theory we can identify the equilibrium as the two kids talking and then suddenly the van being chased by the police and endangering the kids would become the disequilibrium, we then see two heroes stop the car and then defeat the criminals which would become the new equilibrium, however further into the clip we see that the new equilibrium then turns into a disequilibrium as the woman get killed by one of the supposed heroes.

Using Propp's character theory we can identify the two people with powers are heroes of the story, the robbers would be the Villains and the princesses would be the two boys and more into the clip we could perhaps see the man in blue as a false hero.

And with Barthes' action codes we could possibly determine the Heroes as maybe villains

as they appear to kill the criminals despite the traditional hero theme of keeping everyone safe and alive, this could also be determined as the man in the blue also seems to be a hero as he is very fast and he kills a civilian which reinforces the action code of the heroes not being as heroic as they seem

3) Provide three examples from film or television of characters that fit Propp's hero character role.

-Batman

-Shrek

-Avengers

4) Give an example of binary opposition.

A villain would the opposition to the hero

5) What example is provided in the Factsheet for how narratives can emphasise dominant ideologies and values?
The "winner" is the one that often represents the dominant ideologies which then normalises itself within cultures and society such as the police being good as they catch the criminals or who ever wins the most in something is seen as the best at that thing they do.

6) Why do enigma and action codes (Barthes) offer gratifications for audiences?
Barthes' enigma code makes the audience think about what they have just seen, it makes them curious to see what will happen next by adding some sort of mystery.

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

• Episodic narrative (the series)

        Multiple episodes series show

• Overarching narrative (the serial)

         Cliffhanger Ending

• Mixed narrative

        Hybrid of Narrative+overarching

• Multi-strand overlapping narrative (soap narrative)

        Open narrative, no actual determined end

8) How does the Factsheet suggest adverts use narrative?  

For example, the example given in sheet shows a rugby match and the washing company name, so essentially advertisers use an image and then connote their product/brand into the image so that they will associate with them and could even normalise it.