Narratology and Narrative Studies in New Media

Abstract

With the paradigm that humans are storytellers and story creators, there is currently increasing study of storytelling and the application of storytelling in media creation. This is a process or art of conveying stories, whether through speaking, writing, acting, or other media, with the goal of communicating the story to the listener or reader for understanding and emotional engagement. Storytelling can be compared to the act of telling a story. However, when we want to analyze the functioning of created media, using the study of storytelling may not be entirely appropriate. It can only be analyzed based on the specified components, thus providing only a basic understanding of how narratives work, but not allowing for the study of how created narratives function in practice. This academic article proposes using Narratology to study narratives in terms of how created narratives function, instead of using Storytelling to study media, which cannot reveal how narratives function. Using Narratology to study media involves analyzing the components of a narrative, such as plot, characters, temporal perspective, etc., to understand how a narrative works. From studying narratives by several scholars, it was found that within a narrative, there are two levels of functioning: the level of content or text that appears, or the text in a narrative, will be considered based on the elements and presentation techniques, and the level of structure or story level is a deeper level. It is the structural level of the relationship between concepts in a narrative, with the belief that there should be a grammar that governs or determines the structural relationship of various units in every narrative, focusing on how the relationship between the various units in the story arises and how they relate to each other. It is viewed that "meaning" arises from the relationship between the various units, which is the internal logic of the narrative. It is interesting to note that in the past, Narratology has been used to analyze various media such as films, television programs, etc. However, these media are all traditional media with a relatively fixed format, such as having a beginning, followed by the narrative progressing to the climax, and then the resolution. Even the format for designing characters, scenes, costumes, etc., is fixed. But in current new media, this format has changed significantly, becoming a new format or even having no fixed format at all. Therefore, this article will present an analysis of how narratives work, along with considering the elements of narratives in new media. It is found that new media have characteristics that differ from traditional media in terms of dissemination, audience access, interaction, timeliness, and government control. These factors affect the format of storytelling, meaning that when using Narratology, it must be considered in conjunction with the format of new media as well.