Narrative
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Interdisciplinary narrative research conceives of narrative as a “travelling concept” (see Bal 2002) – that is, “a semiotic phenomenon that transcends disciplines and media” (Ryan 2008 [2005], 344; see also the contributions in Ryan 2004). According to Marie-Laure Ryan (2008 [2005], 345), inquiry into the nature of narrative can take two forms: descriptive and definitional. While the former describes what narrative can do for human beings (e.g., serving as a tool for thinking, sense-making, or constructing and understanding models of reality), the latter seeks to identify the distinctive features that are constitutive of a text’s or medium’s narrative quality, its narrativity (see Abbott 2014).
David Herman (2009) foregrounds the multidimensionality of the concept, acknowledging that narrative can be conceived differently in one or the other discipline, for example “as a cognitive structure or way of making sense of experience, as a type of text [or discourse mode], [or] as a resource for communicative interaction” (x). According to Herman, narrativity can be broken down into four “basic elements” or criteria that a text or medium needs to fulfill in order to be considered a narrative, a story. These are (i) situatedness, (ii) event sequencing, (iii) worldmaking or world disruption, and (iv) qualia or the sense of “what it’s like” (Herman 2009, 9). As an interdisciplinary project, OPPORTUNITIES seeks to broaden understanding of the forms, functions, and effects of narratives in migration discourses.
⇢ see also Fictions of migration, Migrant narrative, Narrative, Narrative analysis, Narrative common good, Narrative dilemma, Narrative dynamics, Narrative ecology, Narrative equity, Narrative goods, Narrative identity, Narrative integrity, Narrative market, Narrative technique, Narratives on migration, Representation of migration
References and further reading:
Abbott, H. Porter. 2014. “Narrativity.” In The Living Handbook of Narratology, edited by Peter Hühn, Jan Christoph Meister, John Pier, and Wolf Schmid. URL: https://www.lhn.uni-hamburg.de/node/27/revisions/280/view.html.
Bal, Mieke. 2002. Travelling Concepts in the Humanities: A Rough Guide. Toronto, ON et al.: University of Toronto Press.
Herman, David. 2009. Basic Elements of Narrative. Malden, MA et al.: Wiley-Blackwell.
Ryan, Marie-Laure. 2004. Narrative across Media: The Languages of Storytelling. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Ryan, Marie-Laure. 2008 [2005]. “Narrative.” In Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative, edited by David Herman, Manfred Jahn, and Marie-Laure Ryan, 344–348. London and New York, NY: Routledge.
Category: A
Work Package: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
[CG]
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Narrative analysis
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A subset of discourse analysis (although not typically framed as such), narrative analysis is the reasoned study of the way in which storytellers shape meaning by building on culturally circulating ideas and forms. Narrative analysis is not limited to a specific medium but examines narratives across the range of media in which stories can be told, from oral conversation to novels and video games. The framework of narrative analysis has been developed since the 1950s by literary scholars and semioticians and, in parallel, by sociolinguists working in the wake of William Labov (1972). Like discourse analysis, narrative analysis focuses on interactions between story and context, where context is defined broadly as the existing narrative forms and techniques adopted by the storyteller, as well as the ideological assumptions with which he or she is in dialogue. From this perspective, the specific genre (e.g., tragedy or horror fiction) in which a story is positioned reflects its larger context. The evaluations voiced or implied by the storyteller are also a part of the narrative’s embedding in a certain context. Although content and form go hand in hand in the narrative production of meaning, narrative analysis places particular emphasis on the how of story – that is, how embracing specific narrative techniques steers meaning in significant (if easily overlooked) ways.
⇢ see also Discourse analysis, Narrative, Narrative analysis, Narrative common good, Narrative dilemma, Narrative dynamics, Narrative ecology, Narrative equity, Narrative goods, Narrative identity, Narrative integrity, Narrative market, Narrative technique, Narratives on migration
References and further reading:
Herman, Luc, and Bart Vervaeck. 2005. Handbook of Narrative Analysis. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Labov, William. 1972. Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Category: A
Work Package: 2, 5
[MC]
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Narrative identity
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Narrative identity is shorthand for narrative’s contribution to processes of identity formation. Increasingly, linguists, philosophers, and psychologists are recognizing that storytelling plays a crucial role in the construction of personal and collective identity. Not only do we tell stories to convey information or entertain one another, but the narratives we share help define who we are by positioning the storyteller vis-à-vis existing cultural frameworks. At the individual level, the self is bound up with stories that mirror our past experiences and projections into the future. In social contexts, we perform an identity by telling stories in ways that suggest, more or less deliberately, our political beliefs and ethical values. In discussions on narrative and identity in sociolinguistics and psychology, it is customary to distinguish between “big” and “small” stories. Big stories are elaborate narratives, such as one may find in an autobiography or life story interview, that claim to paint a comprehensive picture of one’s identity. Small stories, by contrast, are fleeting narratives that emerge in everyday conversation and that also contain important information as to the storyteller’s identity. In different ways, both kinds of narrative are involved in the formation and performance of identity.
⇢ see also Life story, Narrative analysis, Migration and identity, Attitudes, beliefs, and values
References and further reading:
Bruner, Jerome. 1986. Actual Minds, Possible Worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bamberg, Michael. 2007. “Stories: Big or Small. Why Do We Care?” In Narrative: State of the Art, edited by Michael Bamberg, 165–74. Philadelphia, PA and Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Category: A
Work Package: 2, 3, 5, 6, 7
[MC]
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Narrative technique
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A narrative technique is a particular way of telling a story. For instance, sociolinguist William Labov (1972) uses the word coda to refer to the final section of an oral narrative, in which the narrative’s “point” and relevance to the speaker and interlocutors are made explicit. Including such a coda is an example of narrative technique. Flashbacks and flashforwards, a relatively common device in literary and film narratives, are also narrative techniques. Importantly, a technique is not merely a device for conveying a pre-existing narrative meaning, but a form that actively influences meaning construction on the part of both the storytellers and their audience. In other words, narrative techniques are never ‘neutral’ but always echo a certain ideological or evaluative position expressed by the story, even if this position is never made explicit.
⇢ see also Narrative, Narrative analysis, Metaphor, Multiperspectivity, Perspective (first, second, third), Polyphony
References and further reading:
Labov, William. 1972. Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Category: A
Work Package: 2, 5
[MC]
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News frame
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In the context of his wider analysis of the phenomenon of news framing and the news frames that are the product of these framing processes, David Tewksbury (2015, n. p.) writes: “At their core, most definitions state that a news frame is the verbal and visual information in an article that directly or implicitly suggests what the problem is about, how it can be addressed, and who is responsible for creating and solving it.” News frames are mostly attributed as tools used by journalists, but in fact these news frames resonate among other key actors in the process of political communication as well, such as experts and politicians. In the OPPORTUNITIES project, especially the use of frames by politicians in tweets will be studied. We will study tweets from politicians in four countries: Austria, Germany, Hungary, and Italy.
⇢ see also Content analysis and corpus linguistics, Quantitative media studies, Survey analysis
References and further reading:
Tewksbury, David. 2015. “News Framing.” Oxford Bibliographies. URL: https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756841/obo9780199756841-0010.xml. Date of access: August 24, 2021.
Category: A
Work Package: 2, 4, 5
[DC / LH / SM]
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News media bias
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News media bias occurs when journalists or news organizations allow their own opinions to affect the news that they report and the way that they report it (Metropolitan Community College 2023). Different sources of bias can occur. Bias might be a consequence of a political belief by a journalist (Soontjens et al. 2023), but it can also be the consequence of stereotyping of certain social and cultural groups (Fiske 1998). The media are alleged to increasingly subvert to news bias, as public opinion becomes increasingly polarized on important social issues such as immigration.
⇢ see also Frame analysis (aka framing analysis), Frames of migration, Intermedia agenda setting
References and further reading:
Fiske, Susan. 1998. “Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination.” In The Handbook of Social Psychology, edited by Daniel Gilbert, Susan Fiske, and Gardner Lindzey, 357–411. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Interactive Media Bias Chart. 2018. http://www.allgeneralizationsarefalse.com/. Date of access: September 8, 2023.
Metropolitan Community College. 2023. “Media Bias.” Metropolitan Community College. URL: https://www.mccneb.edu/Community-Business/Library/Web-Sites/Media-Bias. Date of access: September 8, 2023.
Soontjens, Karolin, Kathleen Beckers, Stefaan Walgrave, Emma van der Goot, and Toni G. L. A. van der Meer. 2023. “Not All Parties are Treated Equally: Journalist Perceptions of Partisan News Bias.” Journalism Studies 24.9: 1194–1213. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2023.2203780.
Category: A
Work Package: 2, 4, 5
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News values
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News values are all about what gets selected as being “news” and which other parts of reality are not deemed newsworthy. Reza Kheirabadi and Ferdows Aghaglozadeh aptly summarize this research theme as follows: “The criteria on which journalists and news editors judge about newsworthiness of an event or news story are called ‘news values’. The most prominent and widely studied list of news values (also called news criteria or news factors) was proposed by Galtung and Ruge in 1965 in which twelve selection criteria such as frequency, threshold, unambiguity and meaningfulness were pinned down as the factors by which gatekeepers make decisions about newsworthiness of a news item.” (Kheirabadi and Aghagolzadeh 2012, 989).
⇢ see also Filter bubble
References and further reading:
Galtung, Johan, and Marie Holmboe Ruge. 1965. “The Structure of Foreign News.” Journal of Peace Research 2.1: 64–91.
Kheirabadi, Reza and Ferdows Aghagolzadeh. 2012. “A Discursive Review of Galtung, and Ruge’s News Factors in Iranian Newspapers.” Theory and Practice in Language Studies 2.5: 989–994.
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Work Package: 2, 4, 5
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