Tim O'Sullivan - Culture and Society - Narrative Essay

Tim O'Sullivan
Culture and Society

Tim O'Sullivan argues that all media tells us some kind of story. Through careful mediation, media texts offer a way of telling stories about ourselves - not usually our own personal stories, but the story of  us as a culture or set of cultures. Narrative theory sets out to shoe 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 out together.

• Narrative: The structure of a story.
• Diegesis: The fictional space and time implied by the narrative - the world in which the story itself takes place. 
•  Verisimilitude: Literally the quality of appearing to be real or true. For a story to engage us, it must appear to be real to us as we watch it, known as the verisimilitude effect. The story must therefore have verisimilitude - following the rules of continuity, temporal and spacial coherence. 

Sven Carlsson - (Narrative Essay)

Sven Carlsson
3 areas of narrative structure

Sven Carlsson suggests that music videos and videos in general fall into two rough groups. These groups are performance clips and conceptual clips. When a music video mostly shows the artist singing or dancing, it is classed as a performance clip. On the other hand, when the clip shows something else during its duration, whether this be a story, often with artistic ambitions, it is a conceptual clip. 

Performance clip

• If a music video clip contains mostly filmed performance, then it is a performance clip. A performance clip is a video that shows the vocalist in one or more settings. 
• Common places to perform include the recording studio and the rehearsal room. However, this performance can take place absolutely anywhere. Walking down the street is one of the main music videos cliches, and this is very common in rap videos. 
• The performance can be of 3 types: song performance, dance performance and instrumental performance. 
• Almost every music video includes song performance, and some combine song and dance performances.

Narrative clip

• If a music video clip is most appropriately understood as a short silent movie to a musical background, it is a narrative clip. A narrative clip contains no lip-synchronised singing.

Art clip

• If a music video clip contains no perceptible visual narrative and contains no lip synchronised singing then it is said to be a pure art clip.
• The main difference between a music video art clip and a contemporary artistic video is the music.
• While the music video uses popular music, the artistic video more often than not uses more modern, experimental music, such as electro acoustic music. 

Carlsson developed a mythical method of analysis of music video, centered on a 'modern mythic embodiment'. Viewed from this perspective the music video artist is seen as an embodying one, or a combination of modern mythic characters or forces, of which there are three general. The music video artist is representing different aspects of the free floating disparate universe of the music video.

• In one type of performance, the performer is not a performer anymore, he or she is a materialisation of the commercial exhibitionist.
• Another type of performance in the music video industry is that of the televised bard. He or she is a modern bard signing banal lyrics using television as a medium. The televised bard is a singing storyteller who uses actual on-screen images instead of inner, personal images. The greatest televised bards create audio-visual poetry.
• The third type of performer is the electronic shaman. Sometimes, the shaman is invisible and it is only her voice and rhythm that ancor the visuals. He or she often shifts between multiple shapes. At one moment, the electronic shaman animates dead objects or have a two-dimensional alter egos, much like in cartoon comics. Seconds later he or she is shifting through time and so on.

Bordwell and Thompson - Story and Plot (Narrative Essay)

Bordwell and Thompson
Story and Plot

Bordwell and Thompson (1997) offer two distinctions between story and plot which relate to diegetic world of the narrative which the audience actually see. They based this on Russian film theory:

• Fabula (story) is all about the events in the narrative that we see and infer. The fabula is defined as the chronological series of events that are represented or implied. 
• Syuzhet (plot) means that everything is visible and audibly present before us. Syuzhet is considered to be the order, manner and techniques of their presentation in the narrative.

Hypodermic Needle Theory (Audience Essay)

Hypodermic Needle Theory

The Hypodermic Needle Theory implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behaviour change.

Several factors contributed to this strong effects theory of communication, including the fast rise and popularisation  of radio and television and the emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising.

• The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people indirectly and uniformly by 'shooting' or 'injecting' them with appropriate messages designed to trigger and desired response. 
• This theory suggests a powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver.
• The hypodermic needle model suggests that media messages are injected straight into a passive audience which is immediately influenced by the message. 
• It expresses the view that the media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver or audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message. 
• People are seen as passive and are seen as having a lot of media material shot at them. People end up thinking what they are told because there is no other source of information.
• The theory assumes what we see or hear we believe and consume. The theory assumes we are brainwashed into believing the media messages. 

War of the Worlds

• In the 1930s, a radio broadcast of War of the Worlds was performed like a real news broadcast to heighten the effect of the story. Due to this people listening thought that the story was real and therefore assumed Mars had come to invade the world. 
• This demonstrates a passive audience and how an audience believes what they hear in the news, in particular how this can quickly lead to misinterpretation.
  

Cons of the theory:

• Very out of date and invalid
• Not everyone watches the news/consumes media in the same way
• Audiences are not simply passive - more up to date theories have proved this
• Technology has changed how we consume media and the sources where it originates from
• We are more aware of society and how institutions operate
• We are now so used to consuming media texts that we understand conventions and know when to reject messages if we deem them insignificant

Blulmer and Katz - Uses and Gratifications Theory (Audience Essay)

Blulmer and Katz
Uses and Gratifications Theory 

The uses and gratifications' model represented a change in thinking, as researchers began to describe the effects of media from the point of view of audiences. The model looks at the motives of the people who use the media, asking why we watch television programmes/films/media products in the way in which we do, why we bother to read newspapers for example, why we find ourselves so compelled to keep up to date with our favourite soap, or consume films. The theory makes the audience active as they choose what they want to consume, they are not forced into consumption, for example you only watch the films you want as you are in control of your choices. The media simply creates the product.

The theory argued that audience needs have social and psychological needs which generate certain expectations about the mass media and what they are exposed to. As the audience is the active participant it allows them to make choices in relation to what they consume making oneself in control of what they consume. This does assume an active audience making motivated choices making the audience in control of their own consumerism.

The 4 needs:

• The underlying idea behind the model is that people are motivated by a desire to fulfil or gratify certain needs. So rather than asking how the media uses us, the model asks how we use the media. The model is broken down into 4 different needs.

1. Surveillance
2. Personal Identity
3. Personal Relationships
4. Diversion

1. Surveillance

•   The surveillance need is based around the idea that people feel better having the feeling that they know what is going on around them. For example, we watch the news as we feel that it is a reliable source of information and it makes us feel secure that we know what is happening around us. 
• The surveillance model is all about awareness. We us the mass media to be more aware of the world, gratifying a desire for knowledge and security. 
• When we watch something that reassures the audience and the consumer becomes rather passive and accepting of what they are consuming.
• We use the media to be helpful in our every day activities.
• Social media can influence how this concept works as fake stories are created giving false senses of security.

2. Personal Identity

• Personal identity explains how being a subject of the media allows us to confirm the identity and positioning of ourselves within society.
• The use of the media for forming personal identity can be seen in music videos or films. Pop stars can often become big role models, inspiring young children everywhere. 
• Personal identity when consuming a media product allows us to associate and relate to the product directly making us fee gratified in one way or another, making us understand that we share our identities making us feel normal or accepted.
• Different genres allow people to identify in different ways to different elements.

3. Personal Relationships

• This section comes in two parts: relationships with the media and using the media within relationships. 
• We can form relationships within the media, and also use the media to form a relationship with others. 
• Many people use the television as a form of companionship.
• The television is often quite an intimate experience, and by watching the same people on a regular basis we can often feel very close to them, as if we even know them.
• When characters in a soap or film die, those who have watched that person a lot often grieve for their character, as if they have lost a friend.
• Another aspect to the personal relationships model is how we can sometimes use the media as a springboard to form and build upon relationships with real people. 
• Having a favourite TV programme in common can often be the start of a conversation, and can even makes talking to strangers much easier. 
• Some studies suggest that some families use sitting around watching the television as a simulus for conversation, talking to each other about the programme. 

4. Diversion

• The diversion need describes what's commonly termed as escapism - watching the television so we can forget about our own lives and problems for a while and think about something else. 
• We watch music videos/films to take our mind off everyday lives, we want to distract ourselves from the problems that we are personally experiencing. We want to see that people experience the same feelings that we do and want to forget about our own problems and focus on someone else's. 

Stuart Hall - Reception Theory (Audience Essay)

Stuart Hall
Reception Theory

The reception theory states that media texts ar encoded by the producer meaning that whoever produces the text fills the product with values and messages. The text  is then decoded by spectators. Different spectators will decode the text in different ways, however, these ways are not always in the way the producer intended. 

Dominant:

• The dominant reading of a text is that the audience view the media text in the way the producer intended.
• The audience agree with the ideology and message behind the text.
• The audience will view the message in the way the producer wanted them to.
• The ideal consumption has been met and therefore the institution is happy. 

How may an audience have a dominant understanding of a specific media text?

• Clear messages
• Audience is the same age so it relates to the product
• From the same culture
• Easy to understand narrative and they can relate to the narrative in some way
• Relevant to society
• Audience are choosing to consume the product so must have a reason to like it in the first place

Negotiated:

• This is a compromise between the dominant and oppositional readings.
• The audience accepts the views of the producer but also has their own input and understanding of the text.
• They do not agree or disagree, they however can see the point being made in relation to the reading yet still have their own opinion.
• For example, they understand what the institution want the message to be and how they are supposed to consume the text, however they do not fully conform with the message.

How may an audience have a negotiated understanding of a specific media text?

• The audience may not have had the same life experiences
• May not understand the narrative in relation so therefore cannot relate to it in the intended way
• Do not understand all of the messages making it unclear what the dominant reading is supposed to be

Oppositional:

• The audience rejects the preferred reading of the text and created their own.
• The audience reject the meaning fully as they do not agree with the message created for the audience.
• The audience reject the message fully and interoperate the text in the wrong way.
• They may be upset, offended and fail to see the intended message from the institution.

How many an audience have an oppositional understanding of a specific media text?

• The product has controversial themes
• Disagree with the messages in the video
• Dislike the genre
• No understanding/ cannot relate to the narrative structure
• Is not reflective of society
• Different cultures have different understandings

Essay 1 - Representation