Media Narrative: On the Question of Structure and Functions

Abstract

As a research task, the authors made an attempt to analyze the phenomenon of the media narrative in the structural and functional aspect. The selected research material includes the following phenomena: Soviet posters, publications in the mass media (MSK) and videos (motivational content) posted on the TikTok platform. The subject side of the study includes narrative motifs presented in the relevant materials. The relevance of this scientific research is due to the fact that the media narrative has a large "manipulating resource" and can affect the individual or society. The manipulative "power" of the media narrative is increasing in direct proportion to the development of information technologies in modern society. The research methodology is based on the narrative theory of V. Ya. Propp, which involves the decomposition of the plot into composite invariant motifs. The analysis showed that the motive of struggle in the studied media narratives is the key one, it is repeated in all plot constructions - from the narrative of the Soviet poster to modern narrative forms. The importance of this motive is explained by the fact that it is associated with the goals of media exposure, and the recipients begin to reproduce the motives from the materials studied by the authors in reality. That is, we can say that the audience, consuming information containing this kind of media narrative, begins to become a part of it itself, but in reality.