This document discusses narrative structure in media. It begins by defining narrative as a way of organizing spatial and temporal events into a chain of cause-and-effect relationships with a beginning, middle, and end. It then distinguishes between a story, which is the irreducible substance or events, and a narrative, which is how a story is told. Several common narrative structures are described, including Todorov's model of equilibrium being disrupted and restored, and linear vs. non-linear narratives like Pulp Fiction. The document also covers circular narratives and how narratives can manipulate time.

1. Creative Media Production & Technology
Unit 4: Critical and Contextual Awareness
MEDIA
LANGUAGE
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3. MEDIA LANGUAGE
NARRATIVE
• Write down a one sentence definition of what you think
it means.

4. MEDIA LANGUAGE
NARRATIVE
• Write down a one sentence definition of what you think
it means.
• While the term ‘narrative’ certainly is not used as
commonly as ‘story’, most people know that it refers, in
some way, to stories; in fact stories are endemic to our
lives.

5. WHERE DO WE FIND
NARRATIVES?
Task: Make a list of what stories/narratives you have engaged with today.
• TV Programmes
• Novels or short stories
• Films
• Advertisements
• News stories in papers or on TV and radio
• Via the internet
• Through talk, ‘gossip’ and chat.

6. DEFINING NARRATIVE
• All media texts, fictional and non-fictional, moving image and still image
contain narratives. All media texts tell stories.
• Narratives – in any medium or genre, are ways of structuring and
representing
• Narrative is a temporal and spatial mode. In other words, a way of
organising both time and space in relation to each other.
• Narrative is defined as “a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship
occurring in time” (Bordwell & Thompson, Film Art, 1980). ADD TO
GLOSSARY
• Narrative is ‘a way of organising spatial and temporal events into a
cause-effect chain of events with a beginning, a middle, and end that
embodies a judgement about the nature of events’ (Branigan, 1992).

7. What’s the Story?
What’s happening?
Who is involved?
Where?
When?
How can you tell?
What might have
happened before?
What might happen
next?
WHAT’S THE STORY?

8. What’s the Story?
What’s happening?
Who is involved?
Where?
When?
How can you tell?
What might have
happened before?
What might happen
next?
WHAT’S THE STORY?

9. WHAT’S THE STORY?
What’s happening?
Who is involved?
Where?
When?
How can you tell?
What might have happened before?
What might happen next?

10. WHAT’S THE STORY?
What’s happening?
Who is involved?
Where?
When?
How can you tell?
What might have happened before?
What might happen next?

11. STORY? NARRATIVE? PLOT?
• In Media, NARRATIVE is the coherence/organisation
given to a series of pieces of information
• We need narrative to make sense of things and we
connect events and make interpretations based on those
connections.
• In everything we seek a beginning, a middle and an end.
• We understand and construct meaning using our
experience of reality and of previous texts.

12. STORY VS NARRATIVE
Story is the irreducible substance of a story
A meets B, something happens, order returns
…while narrative is the way that the story is told to the audience
Once upon a time, there was a princess…
• Key Concepts in Communication – Fiske et al (1983)

13. STORY VS NARRATIVE
Or..
THE STORY
a) Crime conceived
b) Crime planned
c) Crime committed
d) Crime discovered
e) Detective investigates
f) Detective identifies criminals

14. STORY VS NARRATIVE
Or..
THE STORY
a) Crime conceived
b) Crime planned
c) Crime committed
d) Crime discovered
e) Detective investigates
f) Detective identifies criminals
…may be told as
THE NARRATIVE
d) Crime discovered
e) Detective investigates
f) Detective identifies criminals
a) Crime conceived
b) Crime planned
c) Crime committed

15. STORY VS NARRATIVE
Or..
THE STORY
• Orphaned boy grows up in Indian
slums, enduring hardship and poverty.
• He meets and is separated from the
love of his life
• When older he decides to try and
contact her by appearing on a TV quiz
show
• His success on the show leads
authorities to believe he is cheating.
• Boy is interrogated and tortured
• Boy tells police officer his back story,
explaining how he knew answers and
his motive for appearing on the show
• Boy returns to show where he is
successful and makes telephone
contact with his sweetheart
…may be told as

16. STORY VS NARRATIVE
Or..
THE STORY
• Orphaned boy grows up in Indian
slums, enduring hardship and poverty.
• He meets and is separated from the
love of his life
• When older he decides to try and
contact her by appearing on a TV quiz
show
• His success on the show leads
authorities to believe he is cheating.
• Boy is interrogated and tortured
• Boy tells police officer his back story,
explaining how he knew answers and
his motive for appearing on the show
• Boy returns to show where he is
successful and makes telephone
contact with his sweetheart
…may be told as
THE NARRATIVE
• Boy is interrogated and tortured
• Boy tells police officer his back
story, explaining how he knew
answers and his motive for
appearing on the show
• His time growing up is shown
through a series of flashback
sequences depicting his childhood
and adolescence. In doing so, his
experiences that lead him to know
the answers are revealed in
parallel with his appearance on
the show.
• Boy returns to show where he is
successful and makes telephone
contact with his sweetheart

17. STORY VS NARRATIVE
Or..
THE STORY
• Orphaned boy grows up in Indian
slums, enduring hardship and poverty.
• He meets and is separated from the
love of his life
• When older he decides to try and
contact her by appearing on a TV quiz
show
• His success on the show leads
authorities to believe he is cheating.
• Boy is interrogated and tortured
• Boy tells police officer his back story,
explaining how he knew answers and
his motive for appearing on the show
• Boy returns to show where he is
successful and makes telephone
contact with his sweetheart
…may be told as
THE NARRATIVE
• Boy is interrogated and tortured
• Boy tells police officer his back
story, explaining how he knew
answers and his motive for
appearing on the show
• His time growing up is shown
through a series of flashback
sequences depicting his childhood
and adolescence. In doing so, his
experiences that lead him to no
the answers are revealed in
parallel with his appearance omn
the show.
• Boy returns to show where he is
successful and makes telephone
contact with his sweetheart

18. WHERE DO WE SEE/HEAR NARRATIVES?
Task: In pairs, pick an event that has happened to one of you today.
How could you tell this story differently for
1) An Action Film?
2) A News Report?
3) An E4 Reality TV Show?

19. WHERE DO WE SEE/HEAR NARRATIVES?
Task: In pairs, pick an event that has happened to one of you today.
How could you tell this story differently for
1) An Action Film?
2) A News Report?
3) An E4 Reality TV Show?

20. NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
When we look at narrative and narrative structure we can
start to see patterns that repeat. When location and
character names are removed, many stories begin to look
the same…

23. NARRATIVE STRUCTURES:
TODOROV
Franco-Bulgarian philosopher Tsvetan Todorov observed that conventional stories
start in a state of equilibrium, which is then disrupted, setting in a motion a chain of
events. The resolution of the story is the creation of a new/different equilibrium.
Disequilibrium
Equilibrium
New
Equilibrium

24. NARRATIVE STRUCTURES:
TODOROV
Tsvetan Todorov suggested that narratives are led by events in
a ‘cause and effect’ format.
The narrative starts with an equilibrium
An action / character disrupts the equilibrium
A quest to restore the equilibrium ensues
The narrative moves to a confrontation/climax
Resolution / equilibrium is restored

25. Can you apply this theory to 2-3 films you have watched
Film Name How it applies to Todorov’s theory
Titanic Rose is engaged Rose then leaves
her fiancee for
Jack; Jack then
dies
Rose continues
her life as an
independent
woman

26. NARRATIVE STRUCTURES:
TODOROV
Texts that conform the audience’s expectations by following this pattern can be
described as ‘ideologically conservative’. They are ‘safe’, do not challenge the
audience and are ‘comforting’. Most mainstream texts are like this.
Other texts may challenge the viewer by not ending with a ‘return to
equilibrium’ and end with the characters in a different, possibly worse situation
situation than the start. These may be described as ‘ideologically progressive’.
as they promote a change in attitudes.
Some media texts seek to challenge audience expectations by leaving open-
ended or ambiguous narratives that leave the audience to interpret what they
understand by the ending. Narratives that only have one possible interpretation
are said to be ‘closed’.

27. LINEAR VS NON LINEAR
NARRATIVES
Narratives that ‘go in a straight line’ from beginning to end are said to be linear.
However, many films play with this and jumble the order of events into a non-linear
structure.
e.g.:
Can you think of any examples?
A B C D
A BC D

28. NON-LINEAR NARRATIVES: PULP FICTION
If the seven sequences were ordered chronologically, they would run:
4a, 2, 6, 1, 7, 3, 4b, 5.
Sequences 1 and 7 partially overlap and are presented from different points of view; the same is true of sequences 2 and 6.
1.Prologue—The Diner (i)
2.Prelude to "Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife"
3."Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife"
4.Prelude to "The Gold Watch" (a—flashback, b—present)
5."The Gold Watch"
6."The Bonnie Situation"
7.Epilogue—The Diner (ii)

29. CIRCULAR NARRATIVES
Narratives that begin and end at the same point are said to
be circular narratives.
Beginning
Middle
End
These are often used in films/programmes
that start at a climactic event then flashback
to the events building up to it.
It is also common in sitcoms and TV series
where stories do not continue through an
entire series so that audiences can ‘join in’ at
any point (e.g. The Simpsons).

30. NARRATIVES AND MANIPULATING
TIME
In the case of Pulp fiction and other similar texts, the chronology of the story has
been reordered to make the film more interesting and stimulating for the
audience – like a puzzle.
There are several other ways, besides reordering, that narrative manipulates time.
•Flashbacks show events from the past
•Flash-forwards show events from the future
•Ellipsis An ellipsis in media narrative leaves out a portion of the story. This can
be used to condense time, or as a stylistic method to allow the reader to fill in
the missing portions of the narrative with their imagination