Media analysis – Laurent Di Filippo – nov 2010 Narrative analysis Media analysis – Laurent Di Filippo – nov 2010 Laurent.difilippo@im.uu.se

Aim of the course Study the représentations of new media in the TV-serie South Park Killing two birds with one stone Learn method of media analysis Have a preview of the social representations of new media Third bird : writting an article

Why using Narrative Analysis ? Narration : "a chain of events in cause-effect relationship occuring in time and space" (Bordwell and Thomson, 1990) Theoretical and technical term for stories Sequences of various evenements ? How is continuity described Idea of distinct events linked by cause effect relationship

Why using Narrative Analysis ? Narration : Sources of Knowledge (see Plato and myths in The Republic) Selecting and omitting elements Shape perception of social reality (representions) Communicates continuities and changes Source of pleasure : Mimetic qualities and identifications

2 types of narrative analysis Narrative Structure Plot and Story Causality, time and space Processes of Narration range and depth Narration in melodrama Satirical TV SHOW Mise en scène

Narrative structure What is told ? Unity of meaning The cause and effect logic that connects events The characters and how they motivate events The temporal order, duration, frequency, how is time represented ? Spatial informations

Plot Versus Story Plot Story What will be studied ? What is presented explicitly Story Diegese / the whole fiction Story Inferred events Explicity presented events Added nondiegetic events Plot What will be studied ?

Causality, time and space Link between the shots and the scenes and relation to the link between the events Time : plot time VS story time, order, duration, frequency Space: visible space VS diegetic space What effect is created ? Space: visible space VS diegetic space => What king of elements ? For example where are we if we see the tour effeil

Universal Models Compare the initial and the final equilibrium Todorov's Model Exposition Disruption Complication Climax Resolution and Closure

Processes of narration How things are told Importance of the place of the narrator The viewer's activity ? Process of story construction

Range and depth What kind of information is given ? Range Depth Unrestricted or restrected (Omniscient narration or character related) Whose point of view is represented and how ? Depth Degree of identification Camera position and point of view shot

Narration in satirical TV show Specificity of the genre Satire : "A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit" Linked with real life What is funny and why ? (dialogue, plays on word, situation, repetition, etc...) How is identification implemented ? Irony is a mean for distanciation, say the contrary to emphase what we think Derision : act of mockery Wit (esprit) : "The natural ability to perceive and understand" Sharp Melodrama is linked to pathos

Mise en scène How different elements attract our attention and shape our understanding of the story Background / décor Positions of the characters, clothes Lights Other relevant and non-relevant elements Systematically : in their own right and in interaction with other elements (Construction)

Don't forget The context Relation between the elements of analysis Intertextuality How the structure and the mise-en-scène inform us on what is not said The told and the untold

Conclusion Narrative changes with society A set of tools that can be extended according to the data and the researcher What seems important for you that you got from the course ?

Tasks www.southparkstudios.se "Canada On Strike", S12E04 (1: Structure, 2:Processes) "Make Love, Not Warcraft", S10E08 (3: Structure, 4:Processes) "Guitar Queer-O", S11E13 (5: Structure, 6:Processes) "Over Logging", S12E06 (7: Structure, 8:Processes) "You have 0 friends", S14E04 (9: Structure, 10:Processes)