week 2 Flashcards
Narrative: 4 elements
- A character
- An event
- Temporality
- Causality
“The king died and then the queen” is an informative statement.
“The king died and then the queen died of grief” is a plot, a narrative, that focuses on causality.
Exposition is less effective than narratives:
- Exposition: A comprehensive description and explanation.
- Narratives: Easier to comprehend, more engaging.
- Individuals pay more attention to and are more likely influenced by examples than by base-rate data.
Narratives reduce reactance to persuasive content:
- Reactance: audiences react against being persuaded with facts through critical analysis or counter arguing.
- As long as the persuasive intent remains concealed, the default outcome of exposure to narrative messages is acceptance.
- Fictional narratives often contain truthful or realistic elements and users
readily apply information from fictional stories to answer questions
about reality.
Why are narratives effective?
- Narrative transportation: the feeling of being lost in the world of a narrative, immersed in a story, leaving the real world behind.
- Leading to beliefs, attitude, and intention changes.
- A convincing Film paradigm: set up, (plot point) confrontation, (plot point #2) resolution.
Storytelling structure (academic)
- Setup (act1)
- Complicating structure – difficulties are introduced (act2)
- Development (act3)
- Climax (act4)
PSI – parasocial interaction
A kind of psychological awareness experienced by an audience member in their
mediated encounters with performers in mass media.
PSR – parasocial relationship
A one-sided, interpersonal relationship in which the viewer knows and understands a
media persona or character.
Experiencing characteristics:
- Identification – forgets own reality/becomes the character.
- Identifiable characters enhance narrative transportation because users
vicariously experience characters’ beliefs and emotions, empathize with them,
and become engrossed in the story.
Hero & Villain Matrix
protagonist, ends up positive: hero
antagonist, ends up positive: Anti-villain
protagonist, ends up negative: anti-hero
antagonist, ends up negative: villain
ADT (affective disposition theory):
entertainment users make moral judgments about character that affect their enjoyment of the narrative.
Plot armor:
We hope for good things to happen to liked protagonists, and fear that bad things may happen to them. But if there is no fear that bad things actually happen, suspense dissipates, and enjoyment suffers.
Ugly Antagonists
Physically attractive individuals are assigned more favorable qualities and personality
traits compared to an unattractive person.
Protagonist becomes Hero:
- The ordeal or crisis is the crux of the movie, it shows the essence of the hero
and her heroic power. - The resurrection or apotheosis is the climax of the movie.
- Narratives where the protagonist experiences a fall followed by a rise, tend to have more worldwide cinematic success.
Deuteragonist
The person second in importance to the protagonist in a drama.
Narrative design:
- Chekhov’s gun: details within a story should contribute to the overall narrative
- Foreshadowing: provide a warning or indication of a future event
MacGuffin:
an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance.
Episodical narrative vs Serial narrative
Episodical narrative:
- Typically ensemble cast
- Narrative closure per episode
- Familiar setting
Commercial Breaks
- Ellipsis
- Cliffhangers
- Fade in/out Serial narrative:
Serial narrative:
- Sequential narrative development
- No narrative closure per episode
- Accelerated exposition starts episode
- Cliffhangers
- Ongoing Narrative
- Multiple plots
- No definitive closure
- Minimal exposition
Anti-heroes: Who are they?
Anti-heroes are protagonists whose conduct is at best morally ambiguous, questionable and at times unjustifiable.
Moral disengagement cues
- Reasons/cues to rationalize our liking: e.g. He does it for his family!
- Anti-heroes also have villains: Someone who is even WORSE (morally) than our anti-hero.
Which is another CUE to like the anti-hero.
- Which step ends Act I and signals the start of Act II? Which step ends Act II and signals the start of Act III?
This turning point is often referred to as the “Inciting Incident.”
Shafer and Raney (2012) argue that Affective Disposition Theory is sometimes not sufficient to explain the enjoyment of antihero narratives. Why do they suggest this?
Highlight the relevant sections in the Intro/Theory sections of the paper.
- Affective disposition theory (ADT) states that entertainment users make moral
judgements about characters in a narrative which in turn affect their enjoyment of the narrative . - Moral judgement: concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior. Is the character virtuous, good, righteous, honorable, honest, just, or otherwise a decent (human) being.
- What is moral disengagement and how does it help explain enjoyment of anti-hero narratives?
- As a supplement to the ADT model, Shafer and Raney (2012) proposed that viewers apply moral disengagement.
- Viewers look for narrative cues that allow them to put aside moral scrutiny, or overlook moral failing. They actively seek out narrative elements that allow them to reduce the role of morality within their evaluation of anti-hero characters.
Villians
The stronger the villian, the more courageus and heroic the hero.
* The mirror villain: a dark example of what the hero could be. The hero uses his abilities for good, whereas the mirror villain uses those same abilities for evil.
* Pure villains: often not human, no sympathetic characteristic traits, no positive motives of backstories.
Leitmotiv
can recognize hero or villian
A recurring element (often music) that is associated with a person or idea.
