Television as narrative

The narrative seem such an easy term to be defined but at a closer look brings up many questions that need answering, and a partial synonym for this term would be the story. The narrative refers to a collection of stories that change our way at seeing different events that happened. This term is a debatable amongst narratologist, Abbott: “Narrative is the representation of events, consisting of story and narrative discourse, story is an event or sequence of events (the action), and narrative discourse is those events as represented.” as for other authors the term narrative represents more than events and define it as what makes the change possible. Prince explains the type of logical relation “Narrative is the representation of at least two real or fictive events in a time sequence, neither of which presupposes or entails the other.''(Herman:2007 p23)The narrative theory is useful in analyzing the element of storytelling in journalism, literature or movies and televison adverts. While many media text can be analyzed according to 'classic' narrative principles of storytelling, moving images and digital forms require also a new critical framework.

Over the years the audience become more and more skilled at reading television narratives, the different techiques which Tv programme makers use to construct their narratives. Narrative is considered an active dimension of the ordering, relating and transforming the stories that exists in the media. When we talk of the way that a text is put together and stand out we are refering to coherence. Narrative is a form of coherence, linking the elements together to form the cause and effect. The avertisment here is that we should not approach all texts by a tipical model in whic every element is linked to every other. The most forms of media texts are structured around narratives. Casey claims that: '' It is narratives that draw us in, engage us and encourage us to keep reading, viewing or listening. The unfolding of narratives is one of the principal sources of pleasure in media’(Matheson :2005 p86) The stories many time provide templates for thought because people read their own lives accoring to the type of hero or the antihero. For Wright the narrative is a fundamental ordering of experience, the ways in which the element are blended togehter into episodes but focusing more on the characters . The details play an important role in the story. Even the act of telling the story is transformed, the experience is making sense, the identity is established through narrative Gergen and Gergen claiming: ‘The fact that people believe they possess identities fundamentally depends on their capacity to relate fragmentary occurrences across temporal boundaries’ (Matheson 2005 p83)

Narrative theory helps us understand the complexites of structure found in narrative fiction. Narratives are governed by specific rules and strategies that organize the story elements into a logical sequence (O'Sullivan, Saunders, and Fiske 195). Several narratives follow a linear chain of events. The story is the chronological succession of events that serve as the foundation or the building blocks of the narrative. For example, the narrative presents the disturbance, followed by a crisis, ending in a resolution.

Tzvetan 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

Those who analyze the structure of narratives argue that each narrative has two parts: a story and a discourse. Chatman identifies two components of the story: the event (actions, happenings) and the existents (characters, setting). To put it in another way, the story is the what in the narrative that is presented. The discourse, on the other hand, is "the expression, the means by which the content is communicated" (Chatman p.19). The discourse is how we are told about what happens. In television narratives, it is not uncommon for the discourse to begin in the middle of the story. In a typical detective narrative, the discourse may bring the reader/viewer into the story at the beginning when the murder is committed, or it may delay those details and begin when the body is found and lead the viewer back to the actual murder later. In other words, the order of the presentation does not have to be the same as the "natural logic of the story" (Chatman p.43). Discourse is concernedwith how the story is arranged and presented, the look, feel, and pace of the story. The actual events (actions, happenings) and existents (characters, settings) that make up the narrative's story must be examined. Events have a particular meaning that can be divided into two categories: kernels or satellites. For Chatman, "Events are either logically essential, or not" . In Chatman's schema, kernels are more important to the integrity of a story than satellites: "kernels are narrative moments that give rise to cruxes in the direction taken by events. They are ,branching points which force a movement into one of two (or more) possible paths" (53). Hence if a character turns herself in to the authorities instead of fleeing, the narrative may well become the story of how the character struggles to survive in the justice system. On the other hand, if the character flees the authorities, the story may become the search for the character or the way in which the character eludes police. These events are examples of kernels, reffering to the critical juncture in the story. When a critical juncture in the story would change the nature of the story depending on the choice made at that juncture, the event is a kernel.

An analysis of the narrative structure of a television drama helps one see more clearly that this television series is a combination of individual stories, some self-contained and others presented in an elliptical manner . The presence of story segments tells us that the episode assumes some of the characteristics that define serial television, such as the use of continuing storylines. Some narratives received the least attention in this episode and could be viewed as serving as fillers or relief from the tension of other stories

Television's narratives appear as a major storyteller for our society, echoing our values and defining our assumptions about the nature of reality. Television viewers are presented with stories of heroes and villains captured in the turmoil of relationships or of epic situations. Television's programs influence viewers by presenting values that achieve the governing ideology. Analizing the structure of television's narratives allows us to explore the main components used to construct the text. By examining structure, we can begin to identify the rules and patterns in a particular genre of television narratives that help to create meaning. Reviewing the principles of narrative theory help us to understand the conventions of a television text. Television's narratives present a special case compared with other narrative structures. Jane Feuer display that narrative theory has been used primarily to examine linear, finite narratives, such as novels or films. In the time since Feuer made her affirmations, there have been few new developments or applications of narrative theory to television. Media literacy could benefit by utilizing narrative theory. If we want to help others understand the relationship between television's stories and our culture's values and assumptions about how we define reality, many of the elements of narrative theory need to be more functional. Although television narratives are as linear as many novels, they present several pozitive features that distinguish them from other forms of narration, a heavy emphasis lay upon the character development and continuous storylines that flow between episodes of a series.