Narrative Strategies of Modern Media Text

Abstract

The aimof the study is to identify the main conceptual narrative concepts of media discourse and illustrate how narrative analysis reveals narrative strategies of media text, which in turn provides a basis for identifying hidden meanings, ideologies, myths, even in the structure of so-called non-narrative media -news journalism. Research methods and techniques. According to the theory of narrative, in our study we based the narrative analysis of the media on two leading approaches: 1) syntagmatic (based on the works of W. Propp (1928) –the sequence of narrative plot with emphasis on the chain of actions and events, themes in motives; 2)paradigmatic (ideas of K. Levi-Strauss (1963)–the choice of stylistic means that formalize the narrative and pragmatic features of the social and cultural context. Results and discussion. In the study, we consider the median narrative as a coherent narrative phenomenon associated with important influential ideas of the world. Allegations that the factsin the hard media are presented neutrally are refuted by narrative analysis and reconstruction of the media text. This approach to the media text actualizes the «hermeneutics of suspicion», which expresses distrust in the «reality» of the facts and in reality itself. We argue that the texts of mass communication and journalistic materials in particular are complex texts that seek not only to inform, teach and entertain, but also to change the perception of reality and identity in a particular cultural and historical discourse. Conclusions. The use of narrative analysis of media messages allows to reveal the narrative strategies of the proposed media texts in different media (news, TV series), and to explain how narrative levels of media represent different power discourses, how they represent the ideological plane and myths in modern sociocultural discourse. Key words: narrative, narrative strategies, focalization, media text, narrative turn, news genres, hermeneutics of suspicion.