analysis of my media products on propps and todorovs narrative theories

Vladimir Propp’s Theory of Narrative

Vladimir Propp suggested that characters took on the role of narrative 'spheres of action' or functions. From a comprehensive study of folktales Propp came up with different character types:

• The hero, usually male, is the agent who restores the narrative equilibrium
often by embarking upon a quest (or search). Propp distinguishes between
the victim hero, who is the centre of the villain's attentions, and the seeker
hero who aids others who are the villains victims. The hero is invariably the
texts central character.
• The villain who usually creates the narrative disruption.
• The donor gives the hero something, it may be an object, information or
advice, which helps in resolution of the narrative.
• The helper aids the hero in the task of restoring equilibrium.
• The princess (the victim) is usually the character most threatened by the
villain and has to be saved, at the climax, by the hero. The father's (who in
fairy tales was often the king) role is usually to give the princess away to the
hero at the narrative's conclusion. He may also despatch the hero.
• The dispatcher sends the hero on her or his task (who can typically be the
princess father)
• The false hero appears to be good but is revealed, at the narrative's end, to
have been bad
Characters can fulfil more than one sphere character type, for example; a princess
may also be a helper.

i can apply this theory to my thriller video because in our media product it involves a villain and two heros searching for their missing or abducted sister. although this product was made during the early stages of our media lessons, it still includes

http://www.youtube.com/user/longroadmediastudies#p/search/3/cbjhPh9Bu_c

Tzvetan Todorov’s Theory of Narrative
Todorov suggested that conventional narratives are structured in five stages:
1. a state of equilibrium at the outset;
2. a disruption of the equilibrium by some action;
3. a recognition that there has been a disruption;
4. an attempt to repair the disruption;
5. a reinstatement of the equilibrium

This type of narrative structure is very familiar to us and can be applied to many
‘mainstream’ film narratives. my childrens film and thriller can be applied to the todorov theory because it follows the same structures and invloves the same scenarios with in them.

JACK ESSAY QUESTION

How far can the media in 2011 be considered to be democratic?

Democracy is a system of when people get to express their opinions using freedom of speech, in government specifically the public is allowed to vote on their representative. In Media terms this means that the "grassroots journalists"and home video makers can influence the media and distribute these different forms of we media to aim for a response. Large corporations such as Sky and the BBC and also Newspapers control a massive part of the choice of media distribution via their Tv shows which have a large viewer base alongside the radio which has a constant and established viewer base that is also very large. This makes it hard for the media to be Democratized as the public can not get a large share of the distribution of their product whether it be journalism, home video makers or people trying to express an opinion however they can distribute their forms of we media on social networking sites such as facebook as they have a large consumer base which therefore leads to a potentially higher viewer base alongside websites such as YouTube which gives the opportunity to anyone to upload their own video whether it can be them singing which has lead to some people becoming popular mainstream artists which is a positive reaction of we media and now it is becoming increasingly easy to make your own video or contribute to we media as technology is constantly improving.

However large corporations in the film industry such as Hollywood film productions have a massive population that watch their top movies as they have had a building reputation which is massively established and more and more people are watching movies whether it be at the cinema or at home which therefore leads to bigger budgets to make a film compared to the relatively low or no budget home videos.

It has become more democratized because now anybody can create and share anything on the internet (whether this is a good thing or not is debatable). As Dan Gillmor explained in his book 'we-media' 'the audience is now the producer and this has implications on the way media is produced and received by the audience'. Before it was only possible for people to get the news and media from the biggest companies e.g. sky news for news and warner brothers for films but now anybody can produce their own material and if put out into the public eye correctly the possible audience can be extremely vast especially if put onto outlets like facebook which has a massive audience of around 200million. Channel 4 have also tried to democratized there points on small but effective blogs on their websites, however they use major figure heads in these blogs such as Jon Snow and his 'Snow Blog'. this is this a way in which channel 4 are trying to make it look as though they are making their medium more democratized.

in conclusion the media in 2011 can be considered to be democractised on the basis that although media has revolutionised through time it still has the same or a greater effect upon society. whether it be newpapers in the early 1970's to online new website and pod casts of 2011.

What kind of shared experiences are there in the online world and what are some of the issues surrounding this 'global media'?

the experiences that are shared in the online world can be shared views and likes and dislikes through communitcation via facebook, twitter, youtube and my space. people can communicate though skype and can share their experiences with the world. the issues of this are that privacy and confidentiality is sparce and as we have seen in catfish no one can be trusted with communications.

final script

To begin with I guess we should explain what WE-media is. We-media is the form of media which lets anybody broadcast or share the news that they feel is important to them and the wider public. Websites like youtube allow people to share any content (within reason) with as many people as they want.

The two specific media areas we have decided to study are social networking and films/video. Social networking has been transformed by the concept of We-media. Social networking by its very name is a concept which attempts to gather everybody in and unite them through the internet- Facebook is at the front line of social networking with an estimated 'population' of 600 million! We-media is reporting and showing news/events and of course social networking has been galvanised by this and has helped to galvanise we-media. Both concepts 'bounce off' each other to improve individual and aspects.

Films and videos is the second media group we have studied.  Just like social networking, films and videos are now easily shared by using the concept of WE-media. Youtube lets anybody with an internet connection view videos that have been uploaded from all around the world. Videos and feature films (broken up in some cases into parts) are accessible to anyone by just searching the internet- there are sites dedicated to showing episodes of 'South Park' and 'the Simpsons' (amongst others).

Contemporary media theories and practice answers are the final 2 parts in this script.

Henry Jenkins theory about participatory culture applies heavily to WeMedia as a culture and especially to social networking and video. Henry Jenkins argues that participatory "Fan cultures" have been around long before the web but the web has served to expand those already existing and also create new ones.

This applies to WeMedia because it doesn't only apply to "fan cultures". It can apply to any group of people who express themselves through the web. For instance online forums, Facebook and Facebook groups, wikipages, youtube videos and video responses to those videos or of course fan cultures.

This also allows almost anyone access to almost any collective culture. For example movie making was previously only accessible to those with a large budget and support from producers.
In 2004 Mark Zukerberg and some friends of his independently founded Facebook in his dorm room at Harvard university. This social networking phenomena now houses the information of 600 million people and allows people to find, add, message, chat to, upload pictures of and play games with All of their friend, relatives and basically anyone hat they have ever met.

 Question 1. What are we-media?
As 'we' is a pronoun which includes everybody I have come to the conclusion that WE media is the term to describe the changing attitudes in media and ultimately the way that we use it.


Media has as an entity sometimes been seen as a 'dictatorship' because it hasnt always given the reading and viewing public a chance to look at the news and information for themselves.

We media cant be defined because everybody views it differently.

Sources like blogging and social networking are key to this idea because they let people publish what they want to who they want.

 2. Where/how has we-media evolved?

We-media has emerged from media outlets like newspapers and television which form the basis of media and journalism- both forms help big news corporations broadcast news to the general public.

We-media is basically just an advancement of media but the difference - the key difference is that we-media encourages people to broadcast whatever news they want in whatever ways they want. 

 I believe that people want to share news on a small scale e.g. just personal news to their friends via facebook and twitter but as we-media has evolved so has the level that people now broadcast news.

BBC and Sky news are now not the only news channels- now there are websites e.g. news now and live feeds which have constant drips of news to the users of the site.

3.Is contemporary media more democratized?


It has been argued that there is a more democratized contemporary media since the introduction of we-media.

It has become more democratized because now anybody can create and share anything on the internet (whether this is a good thing or not is debatable). As Dan Gillmor explained in his book 'we-media' 'the audience is now the producer  and this has implications on the way media is produced and received by the audience'.

Before it was only possible for people to get the news and media from the biggest companies e.g. sky news for news and warner brothers for films but now anybody can produce their own material and if put out into the public eye correctly the possible audience can be extremely vast especially if put onto outlets like facebook which has a massive audience of around 200million.  Channel 4 have also tried to democratized there points on small but effective blogs on their websites, however they use major figure heads in these blogs such as Jon Snow and his 'Snow Blog'. this is this a way in which channel 4 are trying to make it look as though they are making their medium more democratized.

XtraNormal Script

We Media is the distribution of different forms of media without the input of Large media institutions that controls broadcaasting and the news ect such as the BBC. We Media is produced by the public "Grassroot journalism" and can be distributed in many ways.

2 forms of media that can be used to promote We Media productions are Social networking sites (Facebook) and the use of Films / Videos (Youtube). these are both very well known and easy to use programmes in we media.

What do you think are the disadvantages to we-media in your chosen media areas? (Give me some specific examples of cases where we-media has been a negative thing).

The disadvantage of we media in social networking is that we media gives people different choices of the same thing such as for example facebook events inviting people to more than one event, however if a well known or established event invite was sent peoples opinions would be influenced because they have heard of this well established event and are more likely to attend this event than the we media events.The disadvantage of a we media film is pretty much the same as social networking because bigger and well established companies gain more views than smaller we media companies.