Media Narratives

Definition

A depiction of a chain of events in a cause and effect relationship occurring in physical or virtual space over time.

Societal Impact

Can drive polarization and conflict in divided societies by promoting simplified or group-specific interests.

Economic Function

Persuasive tools often aligned with capitalist imperatives to produce coherent consumer subjects and support business empires.

Transmedia Strategy

A marketing technique that adapts a single story across multiple platforms to reach the widest possible audience.

Construction Methods

Systematically organized series of interconnected images, sounds, and words using media codes and conventions.

1950-01-01

2024-04-01

2024-04-05

Skip to content # MEDIA # Media narratives In VCE Media, narrative is used to describe fictional and non-fictional media stories in all media forms. In narratives the term ‘story’ refers to all events that contribute to the narrative. Narratives are the depiction of a chain of events in a cause and effect relationship occurring in physical or virtual space over a period of time. [...] Fictional and non-fictional stories are fundamental to the media and are found in all media forms. Media industries such as journalism, filmmaking, publishing and photojournalism are built upon the creation and distribution of stories. Stories are constructed in the form of a systematically organised series of interconnected images, sounds and/or words using media codes and conventions. The creator and the audience share an understanding of both the construction, distribution of, consumption [...] and reception of stories. Digital media forms enable creators and participants to develop and distribute stories in hybrid forms including collaborative and user-generated content, which challenges the traditional understanding of story forms and advances new modes of audience engagement.

Because of the connection between media narratives and economic impera-tives, most media narratives work persuasively in the same way as advertisements, 6 Introduction to interpellate the audience as coherent and unified individuals empowered to make appropriate choices on their own behalf. The crucial factor is freedom, a concept that regularly occurs in many media narratives: free choice, free competi-tion, free market and a free subject of discourse who can move directly from sign to [...] Media myths are, by and large, the myths of late capitalism in Western soci-eties, which function to produce the coherent subjects of capitalist economies. As subjects, we are prepared to keep working to maintain the status quo of power as long as we have access to the media products and consumer items that construct and reinforce our identities. Media narratives tell us stories about who we think we are, and in so doing they skilfully reproduce the freely choosing consumers of global [...] Media narratives do not exist, then, simply to entertain us, the consumer, to tell us stories in order to amuse us, or to provide us with a service and a range of choices from which we can make our selection. They are constructed in order to support the huge business empires that run most of the media out-lets, geared specifically to creating profits from the commodification of media products.

Conclusion This paper has discussed the role of the media in promoting simplifed narratives that drive polarisation and conflict in deeply divided societies. It has proposed methods for nurturing richer narrative landscapes across the media sector via training and educa-tion; collaboration and dialogue; verifcation; funding; and regulation. Instead of im-posing one or two unifying narratives, the paper advocates the value of amplifying and elaborating numerous narratives already in circulation, [...] The Impact of a Transformed Media on Narrative Landscapes The media has long played a role in shaping societies’ narrative landscapes. For much of the 20th century, traditional media outlets – newspapers, radio and later television – promoted certain group narratives and interests, most commonly of states and political and business elites. As it professionalised in the second half of the century, the news media continued to have political leanings and prioritise particular angles or takes on [...] elaborate those particular stories, placing them in diferent contexts and looking at them through various lenses, to the point that the combined stories advance a narrative so stable and normalised that it seems to be a given. Narratives promoted by the media become highly visible in the national narrative landscape and internalised by the population.

Skip to article My account Sign in View PDF ## Language & Communication Volume 102, May 2025, Pages 15-29 # The influence of media narratives in the formation of post-conflict discursive landscapes: Stance, engagement and doubt Author links open overlay panel rights and content Under a Creative Commons license Open access ## Highlights • Expressions of doubt in the media impact the discursive landscape in post-conflict situations. • [...] This study provides insights into the discursive means through which media outlets engage in the symbolic development of political conflicts by showing various degrees of trust and certainty towards major historical milestones that may contribute to the resolution of the conflict. Leaning on media linguistics and discourse studies, it observes the changes in expressions of stance in Spanish and Basque print media in the context of the final years of the Basque armed conflict (1958–2018), and [...] Stance and positioning can be observed also in informative genres through micro-linguistic analysis. • Linguistic structures that evoke subjectivity in media discourse include intertextuality and actor characterization. ## Abstract