On Narrative Construction of Television News

Abstract

Individual phenomena of reality are by post-modern theorists analyzed as texts that are produced and can be perceived, that are used and consumed. They interpret texts to reflect them and the reflection is not homogenous. They try to avoid classifications to allow a plurality of possible interpretations claiming that one text may carry various meanings for various users. In their terminology, they introduce categories adopted mainly from linguistics and semiotics. Media discourse researchers of the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st-century deal with language as well as with non-lingual modes of communication. They follow the tradition of semiotic schools that try to apply semiotic theories functioning in the study of language in other domains such as cinema, visual art, music, and costume/dress. The paper attempts to summarise the main theoretical approaches to media narrative discourses and comments on some of the ways the narrative of television news is constructed.