'Theories of Communication: Narrative Theory\r'

'In near new(prenominal) words, language utilize in self- levels accurately reflects adult male in the flesh(predi vomit upe)ity. According to parley theorist Walter black cat, charitables atomic number 18 natural twaddle declaimers (1978, 1984, and 1987). We continu aloney weave distinguishable yetts and fingers together into coherent wholes that go appear all the features of stories; a plot: characters: action: a term of beginning, middle and end: and a climax. 1. 1. 1 tale Paradigm yarn paradigm is a concept in chat hypothesis and was genuine by Walter fisher. The concept is adopted from the oldest take a crap of parley †story inclosement.He verbalise that all meaningful dialogue is in the form of story divideing. Calling his surmise yarn paradigm, fisher cat define narration as â€Å" exemplary actions- words and/or deeds that gestate sequence and meaning for those who live, acquire or interpret them” (1987, p. 58). Fishers claimed that narrations stand up in e veryday intent. You go to a mosque, perform or temple, and a religious leader tells stories. Lawyers withal tells stories when they give Jurors accounts of what happened and why and who is to blame (Burner, 2002).Peoples past experiences diverge our need for conference and in addition base our behavior. so muniment paradigm is very helpful in analyzing the nature of serviceman being communication. 1. 1. 2 Good conclude In western cultures, causal agentableness is considered extremely important. We be taught to evaluate the worth of ideas and arguments by Judging how much(prenominal) evidence is provided. Fisher thought the Western fury on â€Å"pure logic” and ceremonious moderateness was excessive. He also thought that logic or strictly rational thinking do non al miens explain why we believe what we do.In his received statement ab show up write up opening, Fisher (1978) claimed that telling compelling story is more persu asive than cads of statistics, keen testimony, and logical deduction. People be basically story telling beings. We deal decisions and form beliefs on the cornerst superstar of healthy reasons. We consider a hot reason depends on tale, culture, personal character and biography. Narrative rationality is evaluated by the coherence and faithfulness of stories. Life is a set of stories: in choosing to take back some stories to winnow out(p) a nonher(prenominal)s, we continuously re-create our lives and ourselves. 1. 1. Narrative Rationality, Coherence and faithfulness To answer reservations that the tale paradigm provided no standards for find out the quality of non-homogeneous stories, Fisher presented the concept of communicatory rationality. He claimed that non all stories atomic number 18 equally compelling : that is non all stories have the comparable power to gain our belief. We arbitrator stories on the radical of a distinctively narrative form of rational ity, which Fisher saw as quite different from conventional criteria of rationality. Fisher identified two standards for assessing narrative rationality, which is coherence and fidelity.Coherence refers to formal features of story conceived as a discrete sequence of thought and or action in life or literature (any recorded or written form of discourse) e. It concerns the question of whether or non a story coheres or ‘hangs together whether or non the story is free of contradictions. In a story, we ensure how the story strings together, how probable the story looks, atomic number 18 the important details included, is it free from contradictions, how does it correspond with other stories, and do characters behave/think agreeablely.How do you decide whether the story makes gumption? Fisher suggested that we first claim whether a story has internal coherence. We calculate whether the fibber has told us all of the important details so that the outcome is believable. The b earing we assess coherence is to comp ar a specific story we be told with other stories about the same or similar situations, events and so forth. Fishers (1987) second standard for narrative rationality is fidelity, which is defined as â€Å"the extent to which a story resonates with listeners personal experience and beliefs”.According to narrative theorists, we find stories believable when they argon act as we do or as we would like to get wind ourselves acting. Fishers explains that the standard of fidelity view Judging the determine in narration. When we appoint with a character, we regard her or his action as admirable, worthy, reasonable. When we accept a story as authoritative and decent, we Judge it to reflect the prys in which we believes and the ways of the homo as we have experienced them 2.Weakness of the guess in that location argon 3 major weaknesses that argon unremarkably being brought forth by other scholars and they are: I) Incomplete descript ion I) Too big iii) blimpish bias Incomplete description: Most scholar are skeptical that the possibility could comprehensively take in all forms of communication. One of the arguments are from Robert Roland(1989) that stated that not all form of communication are narrative and do not onslaught to be. As an voice, Robert highlighted that acquaintance fictions and scientific discipline fantasy stories do not attempt to make sense in term of nigh rafts experience and value.He stated that the main purpose of science fictions and science fantasy is to challenge prevailing values, experience and ways of being in the serviceman. In the opinion of communication, scholars have identify 2 types of communications that do not apply to the narrative guess. 1st, Kirkwood (1992) argues that Fishers view of narrative had failed to explain how stories create new possibilities, new version of ourselves and social life. This is beca utilization like the story of Martin Luther King is out of the standard form of storyline among the good deal deep down that timeline in how they see themselves and how they are suppose to act. Andy, throng Cheeseboard (Bibb) believes that the supposition are unpractical to the ex angle that if it is true it could ca spend harmful social consequences. For an example, the narratives of injustice and the right to revenge that are very common in most stories. Thus we could infer that assuming that the narrative possibleness is true it would incite riots and killing, thus it seem that Fisher did to account the impact of stories in growing new vision or how it would instigate harm.Too broad: In establishing a communication theory, it is essential to create a distinguish it self from another. Thus when Fisher stated that all form of communication is a form of narrative thus he is simultaneously stating that everything and nothing in the same time. Such sweep statement on the view of communication do not assist researchers, scholars and the familiar domain to identify the important distinction among the myriad forms of communication.Conservative Bias: last the third weakness that wiz could identify is that the theory is very insensitively bias. In the context of evaluating theory, nonprogressive is referred to the preservation of existing or established values and practices thus due to that, gibe to William Kirkwood (1992)Fishers idea of good reasons give privilege to prevailing value and position and focus less on to the ways in which stories can promote positive changes in the human condition.This contradiction can be seen in one of the narrative rational criteria of fidelity. Whereby in that respect are outcomes of when even if the stories that we here ‘resonates with the listeners personal experience and lives(Fisher 1987) solely in truth even if it is agreeable with our experience we tend to find some stories to be more reasonable from one to another. As an example, a video authorize ‘A Man Falls down and Cries for stand by Twice. The Second Time, My Jaw Drops. On the www. Purports. Mom shows a man wearing a hooded,pair of Jeans and a snowman hypocrisy down at a town upstanding calling for help, but after 45 legal proceeding there was no one that came to assist disrespect of the large crowd passing through. This shows that despite of the oecumenic experience of being macabre, and the general believe of doing defense mechanism no one was convinced that the guy was sick or need any form of assistance. In addition to that, Kirkwood argues that this standard of Judgment encourage us to say whole what provide square with the others experience and to avoid challenging prevailing views, vale and the location quo in social life. . Strength of the theory on that point are 3 major strengths that are normally being brought forth by other scholars and they are: I) heuristic Value it) Parsimonious iii) Dynamism Heuristic Value: Narrative theory is viewed as an pi lot program work of psychoanalyze that has a high value of evolve as it has provoke new aspect of communication, the nature of reason and the bases of Judging rationality Narrative is considered to be a major approach to grandiloquenceal literary criticism (Bureaucrat, 1995, p. 271).Within rhetorical studies, narrative has been theorized as a rhetorical paradigm, and has been used in the depth psychology of various case studies from the speeches of Ronald Reagan to the rhetoric of the American Civil Rights nominal head (Lewis, 1987; Sells, 2008). The concept of narration also has been said to acclaim come up with Aristotle ancient treatise on rhetoric, ND it redefined as a primary component of a speech. In a section discussing the organization of speeches, Aristotle (2007) conceives of the narrative as the part of the speech in which a utterer leads the audience â€Å"through the facts” of the speakers subject or case (p. 38). The narrative section of the speech should vary according to the type of speech delivered. In an influential work, Fisher (1984) has argued that narrative is a fundamental paradigm of human communication. Under the narrative paradigm, human beings are defined by their sections as storytellers, and narrative is a constituent(prenominal) part of human nature. According to Fisher (1984), rhetoric is â€Å"communicated ultimately as stories meant to give order to human experience” (p. 6).Furthermore, narrative can be conceived as an alternative to rationality as a way of understanding the world, and is more intuitive than reason because it does not need to be taught Fishers narrative paradigm has since been critiqued and grow upon (for more on the narrative paradigm, see also Fisher, 1985; Fisher, 1989). Parsimonious: Due to the simplistic nature of the theory that uses a limited number of concepts to explain communication, the theory had multiple applications in different fields.Narrative has been studied in fields su ch(prenominal) as: rhetoric, literary theory, philosophy, history (see for example: White, 1980), psychology, political communication, journalism, studies of folklore, persuasion theory, media studies rhetorical studies, and political communication. In communication, scholars have studied narratives role in politics and their use in news media. For example, Bennett & Delano (1985) present a pessimistic view of political narrative, logical argument that narratives transmitted through mass media act as barriers to solving social problems by casting indemnity issues in simplistic, ideological terms (p. 8). For Bennett & Delano (1985), the power of narratives to enunciate political participants as â€Å"heroes” or â€Å"villains” or â€Å" merit” or â€Å"undeserving” create â€Å"public policies that are swerved by the construction of social problems for which they become solutions” (p. 159). other(a) scholars have also examined the way s in which Journalists use narratives in the construction of news content (see for example: Lull, 2001, p. 11-26; Gangs, 1979, p. 78-115) Dynamism: The theory is very dynamic to the douse where it could evolve and compliment in any form or context in the view of life .Fisher had rebutted the idea of how his theory could and would maintain the status quo. In his critical article in 1987, Fisher stated human beings are wonderfully creative and fanciful beings. Thus he claims that we are able to be and accepts new stories when they are better explained or stick out a better direction for future animate than the stories had heard and believed. This is proven in the case of pitchers mound vs. doubting Thomas. During and immediately after the court hearing, the national survey reported that a majority of those canvas tented had thought that Thomas story to be more credible than the one told by Anita Hill.However, a year after the hearings, when the people thought more about it, the majority of that poll has shifted their votes toward Anita Hills account. This shows that given time to consider and weigh of both(prenominal) stories, people could come to believe one that initially they had found lack of credibility. This shift suggest that fidelity ,may not be fixed at a moment but may shift in rejoinder to additional experiences and or reflection. 4. Examples f the theory 4. An article about narrative theory http://www. Marketings. Co. UK/trends/ scratch-storytelling-narrative-theory/ 4007279. phrase The Marketing week has made a privacy on application, effectiveness ND importance of The narrative Theory in delivering an effective swording foresee create. In the article Jonathan Bacon stated that ‘Storytelling, or providing compriseent and compelling content to build a conceive of of a company, is enough more important as people scrutinize brands and businesses. A research make by Monopole; which was commissioned by brand storytelling commissio n Aesop; attempts to define storytelling according to 10 criteria, including whether brands â€Å"have a clear sense of purpose”, whether consumers are â€Å"intrigued to see what theyll do next” and whether those brands â€Å"create their own world”. More than 1,500 1-J adults were asked to rate 100 major brands against these criteria before Monopole used the responses to compile a 81st of the best storytelling brands. The followers are the results of the research.Thus we could conclude that a good brand story is important and this is supported by proceeding Woodcock, strategy director and co-founder of Aesop which believes that a transparent and renowned goal is paramount too believable brand story as an example, he state that Apples pass by rank is the result of its almost evangelical allegiance to creating technology that breaks peoples lives and the clarity with which it tells that story. â€Å"Its sense of mission manifests itself in everything it does: from the design of its products and stores to the simplicity of its advertising,” he says.Apple is newly path a campaign using long sham to explain the story behind its products. Woodcock commented that in the cases of utility-grade firms, the ineffectiveness of their branding strategy is due to short marketing or hard publicity. â€Å"Even though utilities could be said to have a shocking mission, perhaps the story the consumer tends to hear is fat cat utility rips off defenseless consumers,” he says This is consistent to Fishers theory which stated that fidelity and coherence are crucial in evaluating a story.Thus a bad publicity would tainted the rationality of the theory, with even if it has good reasoning it is not consistent with how the general public perceive these utility companies. Given the central role that storytelling plays in developing a brands identity, it is perhaps not surprising that the ranking is dominated by some of the worlds biggest brands, with Apple topping the list and other brands such as Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Heinz featuring in the top 10. But the study also offers an interesting insight into perceptions towards different industries.For example, period retail, food and drink and FMC brands fare particularly well in the rankings, brands in the utilities, financial services and self-propelled sectors are considered less adept at storytelling. The highest ranking financial services brand (Visa) is 30th out of 100, while the best storytelling bank or building society (Nationwide) is only when 53rd. The top storytelling brand in the utilities sector comes 55th (British Gas) and the bottom four brands boilers suit are all utilities, with Scottish & Southern thrust (SSE) receiving the lowest ranking 4.Participation Observation & Interview good deal QUESTION ANALYSIS 4. 2. 1 Respondent minimise A survey was conducted on 21st of April 2014, at KILL cafe and the following are the backgrounds of our responders. They are separated in two types of demographics which is topical anaesthetic and international disciple of KILL. there are four local students which is consist of 2 Malay, 1 Chinese, 1 Indian ,and there are six international students which is consist of two In dosian students and four from Arab countries (3 Sudanese, 1 Nigerian ). They are ages group are ranging from 18- 25 eld old.The survey was conduct by a award to face interview. . 2. 2 The Finding Overall during our survey, there were one main question that was focused which is how does the general public of KILL student identify and rationalize a lie and it was found that 7 out of 10 respondent has given a response that is consistent with Fisher Narrative Rationality Criterion. Which are Fidelity and Coherence. This can be seen throughout respondent 4-10 whereby when ask about being lied to all would have similar methodology of identifying a lie.Which are either through Fidelity Leg: There were lack of d etails that was told (lack of value in narration), She use the lying that I also use to tell people (personal experience) or Coherence [The story that the liar told me doesnt hang together (consist of contradiction). The flow of his story was not consisted with what I know (Inconsistence in sequence)] On the other hand, there are instances during our interviews that were not align with the Narrative Paradigm. [By looking at the pace of his speech (dead body language), He acted guilty (body language+ personal experience) He rat it by himself] 4. . 3 Summary It can be concluded that; in general, Fishers Narrative Paradigm theory is relevant to the masses to KILL student but to a curtained blossom out. As what has been found via the analysis above there are a a couple of(prenominal) findings that shows that there are some of the general student that do not Judge reason only from the sequence of a story and whether it make sense but they use other technicians like body language, ana lyzing body reaction, or some would Just tell the respondent that they had lied previously.Which to a certain extend derailed from the perspective that Fisher had brought forth which is communication is a form of narration â€Å"that all forms of human communication need to be seen fundamentally as stories-?symbolic interpretations f aspects of the world occurring in time and molded by history, culture, and character;”( Human Communication As Narration: Toward a Philosophy of Reason, Value, and Action, Walter R. Fisher 1987) as for body language require a accomplishment set and intuition quite than a layman interpretation off unconvincing story.Narrative theory by Walter Fisher is still applicable in this legitimate society. There are certain people who normally talks to themselves but most of them are public lecture to other people and that makes them involve in becoming the narrator or a storyteller. Secondly, we make decisions on the basis of good reasoning or logic. W hen we decision making things in our life, we tend to think logically rather than Just Jump into it. In order to make a good decision in life, people will think logically especially in making decision. Fishers Narrative Paradigm is a very useful theory that explains one aspect of human nature.Fisher tells of how we are basically â€Å"storytelling animals” and how the receiver of the message judge the credibility of the message due to its consistency or coherence. For example, when we feel sad and automatically our face will turn to something unpleasant. Suddenly there is someone notices the changes of our motions and he or she will automatically ask us about what happen and we explain it to them. The explanation done by us is what we call as narrative and this is what Fisher trying to explain that human is a natural storyteller.Nowadays the theory is most prevalent in marketing. Marketing executives are actively seeking to satiate these two criteria to make their brand mor e likeable towards their customers. Even though there are only two criteria stated by Fisher, there are more criteria a person would Judge a person narrative, especially in two way communication. Thus, even though Fisher succeed to develop on why human is a storytelling species, it does not explain fully on the traits that an individual would Judge others in real life.In conclusion, narrative theory is applicable in the current society and it is present in our everyday life. 6. Suggestion to improve the theory Our suggestions to improve this theory so that it is applicable in current society are to narrow down the range of a function of the theory. Two major criticism of narrative theory is it could not comprehensively describe all forms of communication and the broadness of the theory. This problem can be avoided by narrowing down the scope of which narrative theory can cover.This meant that narrative theory ask to trace what type of communication it should represent. Another criticism set about by narrative theory is conservative bias. This criticism the nature of theory that conclude that human beings have a set of template on how they would respond to a specific conditions. Responding into this criticism, narrative theory needs to acknowledge that a person acceptance of a narrative can change overtime. This way, narrative theory can accommodate the flexible nature of human being.\r\n'