1) Bordwell & Thompson distinguish between the story (fabula) and the plot (syuzhet) in a narrative. The fabula includes all events seen and inferred, while the syuzhet is the specific order and techniques used to present those events. 2) Tim O'Sullivan argues that media texts tell stories about culture through careful construction. They reflect the values and concerns of the surrounding society at different eras. 3) Todorov created the theory of narrative equilibrium, where a disruption causes disequilibrium, recognition of the disruption, and restoration of a new equilibrium state.

1. Bordwell & Thompson
(1997)

2. Bordwell and Thompson offer complete distinctions between the story and the plot. Both of which relate to the
diegetic world of the narrative that the audience are placed to accept and that which the audience actually see. This
is based on the Russian Film Theory:
Fabula - This is the story. This means that all the events in the narrative that we see and infer. It
is defined as the chronological series of events that are represented or implied.
Syuzhet - This is the plot. This means that everything that is visible and audible are presented
before the audience. Syuzhet is seen as the order, manner and techniques or their
presentation in the narrative.

3. Tim O’ Sullivan
(1998)

4. Tim O’Sullivan argues that a media text tells us some kind of story.
Through careful mediation, media texts offer a way of telling stories about ourselves – no usually our own personal
stories, but stories of us a culture or a set of cultures. Narrative theory sets out to show that what we experience
when we ‘read’ a story is to understand a particular set of constructions or conventions, and that it is important to
be aware of how these constructions are put together.
He suggests that the media texts tell us stories about the institution and the culture surrounding them, and also
about the people who create the media texts. The videos address cultural concerns and by choosing to construct the
text in a certain way shows us what technology is capable of, and also reflects the society’s influences during that
era. It shows us, as the viewers, what the culture was like surrounding that era and its values without directly
appearing in the music video.
Institution/
Ideology
Text Audience

5. Pam Cook
(1985)

6. According to Pam Cook, standard Hollywood narrative structure should
have:
- Linearity of cause and effect with an overall trajectory of enigma
resolution.
- A high degree of narrative closure
- A fictional world that contains verisimilitude especially governed by
special and temporal coherence.

7. Tzvetan Todorov
(2000’s)

8. Todorov created the theory of equilibrium.
Stage One: a point of stable equilibrium, where everything is calm and there is normality within the text. The
beginning of the story
Stage Two: the stability is disrupted by some kind of force or event which then creates a state of disequilibrium.
Stage Three: Recognition that the disturbance/disequlibrium has taken place.
Stage Four: The restoration of the disequilibrium, which can only be solved by addressing the disturbance in order to
return to a state of equilibrium
Stage Five: The restoration of the new state of equilibrium. The consequences of the action are to change the
narrative and/or the characters so the final state of equilibrium is not the same as the initial state.
Protagonist
Antagonist
Narrative
Disruption
Quest Resolution
(where things
develop)
(made aware of
each other)
Re-equilibrium
Equilibrium

9. Claude Levi-Strauss
(1900s)

10. Levi Strauss argued that all narratives could be deconstructed down to binary opposites. As well as Aristotle deciding that 'all drama is conflict' in the
4th century BC, 20th century theorist Claude Levi-Strauss suggested that all narratives had to be driven forward by conflict that was caused by a
series of opposing forces. he called this the theory of Binary Opposition, and it is used to describe how each main force in a narrative has its equal
and opposite. Analysing a narrative means identifying these opposing forces.
And by understanding how the conflict between them will influence the narrative until some sort of resolution is reached.
Light/Dark Youth/Age Noise/Silence Inside/Outside
Right/Wrong Good/Bad Poverty/Wealth Strength/Weakness

11. Sven E Carlsson

12. Sven E Carlsson said that ‘One of the most common methods of media text analysis is to break up the music video into black and white boxes.
Almost everything is then perceived as opposites – trash or art, commerce or creativity, male or female, naturalism or antirealism, etc.’
Basically, he believes the most common approach toward media texts is to view them in the sense that binary opposites drive the narration of the
video forward.
Sven Carlsson believes that music videos are divided into three categories:
1) Performance – song, dance, instrumental
2) 2) Narrative – story and plot
3) Conceptual/Abstract
Examples of Performance Videos - Examples of Narrative videos Examples of Abstract Videos
Lady Gaga – Bad Romance Taylor Swift – You Belong With Me Rodriguez – Sugar Man
Rihanna – Rude Boy Bon Jovi – Always MIKA - Lollipop
Michael Jackson - Black or White Bob Dylan – Beyond Here Lies Nothing Little Wayne – Lollipop ft. Static
‘He or she is a materialization of the commercial exhibitionist. He or she is monger of their own body image, selling everything to be in the spotlight
– selling voice, affect, lifestyle, records and so on’
Here Carlsson is saying that he believes performers are restricted in the way that they can perform as they are being used to sell their voice, face,
lifestyle etc. Sven E Carlsson says that this is down to the artists being a seller of their own body image.

13. Kate Domaille
2007

14. Kate Domaille believed that every story ever told could fit into one of eight narrative types. Each have a source, an original story
upon which others are based.
Archilles – The fatal flaw that leads to the destruction of previous flawless person (Superman, Fatal Attraction)
Canclide – The indomitable hero who cannot be put down (e.g. James Bond, Indiana Jones, Rocky)
Cinderella – The dream come true (e.g. Pretty Woman)
Girce – The chase, the spider and the fly, the innocent and the victim (e.g. The Terminator)
Fraust – Selling your soul to the devil may bring riches but eventually your soul belongs to him (e.g. Wall Street, Bedazzled)
Orpheus – The loss of something personal, the gift that is taken away, the tragedy of losses or the journey which follows the loss
(e.g. The Sixth Sense, Love Story)
Romeo and Juliet – The love story (e.g. Titanic)
Trsitan and Iseult – The love triangle, man loves woman unfortunately one or both of them are already spoken for or third
party intervenes (e.g. Casablanca)

15. Michael Shore
1984

16. - Michael Shore argues that music videos are recycled styles, surfaces
without substance, stimulated experience, information overload, image
and style scavengers, ambivalence, decadence, immediate gratification,
vanity and the moment, image assaults and outré folks, the death of
content, anaesthetization of violence, thorough chic, adolescent male
fantasies, speed, power, girls and wealth, album art come turgid life,
classical storytelling motifs.

17. Andrew Goodwin
1992

18. - Andrew Goodwin argues that in music videos narratives relations are
highly complex and meanings can be created from the individual audio –
viewers musical personal taste to sophisticated intertextuality that uses
monticule cursive phenomena of western culture Many are dominated by
advertising references, pastiche and reinforce the post modern ‘re-use’
tradition