The area of media that my group is looking at is texts and narratives. For me particularly the idea of narrative structure really interests me so I decided to do some research about that. In class last week we came across common ground about genres we all liked and would be able to focus on together for narratives. When doing research about this I came across lots of information about the narrative structure of murder films/t.v programmes. I have always been a mass consumer of murder mystery and crime T.V shows where I used to spend my whole weekend in bed watching Criminal Minds, NCIS or The Mentalist…

I thought that this genre would be interesting to look into to dive away from the typical narrative structure of films because in a reading earlier this semester we looked at what films (specifically documentary) drew to in order of structure. There is always the establishment of the protagonist and the relationship with its antagonists, an issue/climax and usually at the end a resolution. They have found through research that this particular narrative structure is one that will be a base for films for a very long time because it engages the audience to stay interested in the film, but also can have many twists and turns along the way of the film.

What I found interesting in this reading is that it talked about the structure of murder narratives to “start in the middle of the action, and then later explain who the characters are and what their space entails”. I really enjoy this narrative structure personally because from the moment that you watch the film or T.V show you are engaged by something that you didn’t necessarily expect and then want to continue watching to find out why it happened and who was involved. This is an interesting narrative structure to look at  because it turns away from what is normally expected in media and engages audiences in a different way.

This week in the workshop I hope that we can decide on a specific genre to engage with so I can do closer reading into that and see in which way that genre diverts off the typical narrative structure of media.

Reading: ‘Classical Narrative Structure: Exposition, Climax, Resolution’ by J.Butler