Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Message Board Topic: Narrative

Many analysts, sociologists and news writers argue that the modern day audience seeks a narrative. This means that news, information, education, politics and other areas of contemporary life require a story – the audience needs to be entertained in order to understand and learn. The audience needs characters that fulfill stereotypes like the underdog, the patriot, the good guy, the bad guy etc. The audience needs a plot – like a political race, where two people struggle to rise to the top. And the audience will only pay attention for as long as they are entertained. Some say that modern life, modern education and modern information systems have become a soap opera.

What does this mean for information or education? What does this mean for art? What does this mean for society?



How has the movie industry affected contemporary life? Are we moving into a soap opera orientated world?

8 comments:

  1. For education, this doesn't mean good things. It's true, when I'm not interested in something in class, I quit paying attention...so do a lot of others. This most likely means we'll just get more stupid as time goes on. For art and society...I'm not really sure what it means. We're moving into a soap opera oriented world considering I can't get away from any type of drama to save my life. People everyone are in their own soap operas, sometimes, you cross into it - other times you're too focused on your own.

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  2. humans want to have fun and be entertained. if things are boring they have nothing to do with what they find boring. humans want to focus on what interests them. that is why we watch movies for entertainment. the reason why we need characters, plots, etc. is because that is how we wish life would be. there is a good guy vs. a bad guy, and in the end we want the good guy to win. over all we need to be entertained with everything we do and see. that is why art has changed. if it does not capture the attention of the people viewing it, then they will have nothing to do with it. entertainment controls our beings.

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  3. I think the affect on education would be that kids cant focus because they are not entertained, and this could change the fine arts world, if people need drama and excitement they wont goto a gallery, b ut i think it will improve illistration and graphic design jobs because companies want to advertise better.

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  4. I think for education this means that it's possible there will be more racism because more people are judging. I think for art this might mean that people will stereotype our artwork and because of a certain image in the artwork they will either like it or dislike it. I think our society now judges people so fast without even knowing them. I think people do look for that modern life but that's not what life is. I also think life has become a type of soap opera for some people who make a big deal about every little thing because of movies and such.

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  5. i think this means that modern education and information are both in a way straining away from what is important and what is needed to focus on things such as drama. art i believe will attract more viewers when the piece is emotion orientated. this means for society that it is becoming too much like the movies or reality tv shows. it has effected life my encouraging drama to a soap opera orientated world.

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  6. For education it means that people are gunna get the wrong idea when they learn if it's all just like a soap opera.For art it means you can make things like a soap opera and it will be entertaining. In society it makes people more dramatic. No we are not moving into a soap opera orientated world because the world is more real than that, even though we may have been affected by the movie industry.

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  7. I'm like that too. I need a visual to remember things and if someone gives me a story or a way that it relates to life it helps me remember it better. It'll be easier to learn if we go that route. As for art, we're already gone down that route with stories and narratives within pictures and images.And society with become better and less ignorant. Movies have changed us in a way that we want the impossible life that a movie shows. Everything is perfect, and nothing is wrong. So of course people want to reenact parts of a movie in their life, however when they do the outcome in the movie is unrealistic so when they try to do the same thing and consequenses happen.

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  8. eh soap operas are probably the most annoying things, and the people who watch them are old so i dont think soap opera life will carry on too much longer because no one can follow the stories because they started before everyone was born. but reality tv maybe, they see how people act and possibly think that that attention is good. BRAINWASH

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