Understanding Media Narratives
Learn everything about media narratives and how they can help you understand emerging social trends.
We are all consumers of media – whether it be news articles, social media posts, movies or documentaries. But how often do we take a step back and think about how these stories are being told? This is where the idea of media narratives comes in.
In Media Studies, a narrative isn’t just another word for story. It’s essentially a method of packaging information. It’s about what details are included; how language is used; what images are shown and how they’re framed – all these aspects work together to create a particular view of the world.
Here’s the main point: news is not just a set of objective facts. News stories are also narratives. They choose which pieces of information to include, how to present them, and which emotional response they want to elicit.
Think about it this way: imagine there’s been a crime in your town and two different reporters have decided to write about it. The first journalist might focus on the criminal themselves, talking about their troubled background growing up in poverty with drug-addicted parents. The second reporter might concentrate more on what happened to the victim – describing how this has affected their family and friends as well as wider community. Both accounts contain facts but it is through its narrative that we can understand these facts and then see our world differently too.
This does not mean that the news is misleading by nature. It just means that we need to be critical thinkers as consumers ourselves. Here are some of the questions that you should ask yourself when faced with any media narrative:
Who is telling it? What’s their agenda?
What’s included? What has been left out?
How is language being used? Any loaded terms?
What images are being used? How do they make you feel?
By understanding media narratives, we can become more savvy consumers of information. We can move past taking everything at face value and begin to question the stories underneath them which shape our worldviews.
Such thinking skills are crucial given today’s complex media landscape. Identifying narratives will enable us have better-informed conversations, challenge biases and work towards a more nuanced global awareness.