Media

1. Telling Stories
Zoë Freeman

2. • Fiske et al (1998) defines a story as an “irreducible
substance”
• Story = what it’s about
• Narrative = way it’s told
• Open text
• Closed text
• Barthes argues that there is many meanings to text, more than the
director intended and expected, this is due to audiences having
different experiences/expectations
• Hermeneutic/enigma code – element of mystery to entice the
audience, is a concealed image, asks ambiguous/philosophical
questions, persuasion to watch film often comes from feeling of
uncertainty of characters fate

3. Todorov’s Theory of Narrative
• Equilibrium – start of every story,
balance and harmony
• Moment of disequilibrium – something
happens, shatter of equilibrium
• Disequilibrium – hero(es) struggle to fix
the wrongs and return to equilibrium
• New equilibrium – villain is defeated
peace is restored at a cost/loss, new
equilibrium is tainted by the experience
(Example shown through ‘The Descent’
(2003) Trailer)
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