Narrative: The way those events are put together to be presented to an audience

Physiognomy:' The supposed art of judging character from facial characteristic' e.g communication through trailers and posters

There are eight main character types,the emphasis was son looking at characters not as representing real people but as functions whose role was to move the narrative forward

What does the character do to push the narrative forward?

Propp's Character theory:

• The hero (seeks something)
  
• The villain (opposes the hero)
  
• The donor (helps the hero by giving the hero a magical object)
  
• The dispatcher (sends the hero on his way )
  
• The false hero (falsely assuming the role of the hero)
  
• The helper (giving support to the hero )
  
• The princess (The reward object which needs to be sought by the hero or reward for completing a mission, gaining affection ,usually gained by false hero
  
• The princess's father (Father gives task to the hero, to take the mission or face percussion's- protective father
  

Propp's Character functions:

• Communication 
  
• Roles
  
• Representation
  
• Differences
  
• Character
  
• Narrative
  
• Identity

'It avoids treating characters as if they are individuals and reminds us they are merely constructs. Some characters are indeed there just to progress the narrative.'

'Propp was a formalist who was trying to uncover the building blocks of folk tales and stories, allowing for objective deconstruction of character and narrative.'

Criticism of Propp's theory:

'He ignores the character,tone and mod in his analysis which differentiates one tale from another.'

'Propp's theories rely on the idea that characters are either 'good' and 'bad' . But are all narratives about struggles between good and bad ,between heroes and villains, or is that an over simplification?'

'Have we moved beyond fairy tale thinking?Narratives can spring from a conflict between two characters who are not easily identified as a hero and a villain.'

'Some critics claim there are many more character types that Propp suggests and we should feel free to identify them.'

Pixar created a film called Shrek that directly addresses Propp's theory as it directly follows the 8 main character types, the hero, the villain, the donor , the dispatcher,the false hero,the helper, and the princess's father, this is the classic structure to a childrens fairy tale.

Audiences between 1970's and 1990's are more anesthetized to explicit special effects.

Images and iconography

Young audiences are aware of artificiality and are becoming harder to shock

• Interested in horror when younger
  
• Scared of configuration of night and dark
  
• Scared by rats reminder of social conditions
  
• Real Horror of World War II meant that they did not like imaginary horror
  

• Contemporary horror films such as the exorcist (1973) were too violent and frightening
  

• Slow disengagement with genre disliked the silly predictability of films by the 1980's that relied on certain conventions
  
• Offering less passive roles for women
  
• US horror was far superior to British horror
  

• Enjoyed the spectacle- blood letting and gore
  
• Understanding the film was artifice
  
• Knowing about the production of the film
  

The belief that this media representation and the subsequent societal reaction may increase the deviance and threat.

"An initial act of deviance or normative diversity (for example in dress) is defined as being worthy of attention and is responded to punitively. The deviant or group of deviants is segregated or isolated and this operates to alienate them from conventional society. They perceive themselves as more deviant, group themselves with others in a similar position, and this leads to more deviance." Cohen, 1972:18)

"Moral panics have been described as a condition episode, person or group of persons which engage to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests" Cohen 1972:9

These extracts from his research suggest that society is unable to adapt to significant change.

After watching the video, I collected a few notes, of the first 10 minutes of the video , of the kind of moral panic the media had create within the first 3 minutes of a news report, using fast cuts and "shocking" images that would potentially worry the audiences.

Moral Panic's mentioned within the media report:

• Islam dominating the world 
  
• Haiti earthquake 
  
• The news forms a part of war warning system (worst case scenario)
  
• Nuclear attack
  
• Eggs-Samonella
  
• Youth-Acid house-Dancing-Culture-Ecstasy (Drug related craze) becoming more popular
  
• Bacteria-Eating flesh
  
• Road Rage
  
• Millennium bug- Everything will explode- Technology will stop working forever
  
• 911 Terrorism 
  
• Pedophilia- Chat rooms, virtual relations 
  
• Mobile Phones- Cyber Bullying
  
• Obesity Increase
  
• Knife crime and Gangs