narratable/unnarratable

What is narratable and what is unnarratable?

What makes something narratable? When an event occurs chances are people should know about it. But not all events are reported by the news. A shooting in Albany, NY may not be covered by the Binghamton news stations. The Binghamton news station may not think the shooting has enough value to be considered narratable. Gerald Prince defines what is narratable is its most basic term: “that which is worthy being told.” [1] How does one define what is worthy of being told. For a story to be narratable it must have news value and this news value is dependent on many different factors. The most important factor is proximity; people care to know what happens closest to them. Other factors include meaningfulness, relevance, demand, unexpectedness, and reference to elite persons. [2] In certain situations, what is considered narratable may seem to be a bit biased. This is because in an economic framework news value is very literal and means momentary value. This value is dependent on resources. [3] This can often times ruin the credibility of the news source.

On the other hand we have narratives that are considered to be unnarratable. Roblyn Warhol states that the unnarratable is something that “is not sufficiently unusual or problematic.” [4] If Ryan dropped his sandwich on the ground during lunch is it newsworthy? How many people around Ryan were affected by his dropped sandwich? Is a dropped sandwich story in high demand? Will it bring in enough monetary value? Most likely the answer is no because this event is not considered sufficiently problematic, heck it’s not really even that unusual. The news is what keeps people connected to all over the world. The bigger stories are the ones that people should know about it and it comes down to certain factors to determine what makes a narrative narratable or unnarratable.

[1] Prince, Gerald: Narratable. In: Dictionary of Narratology, p.56f.

[2] Galtung, Johan/Ruge, Mari Holmboe: The Structure of Foreign News. The Presentation of the Congo, Cuba, and Cyprus Crises in Four Norwegian Newspapers. Journal of Peace Research, vol. 2 (1965), pp.64-91

[3] Fischer, Annemarie. “The (Un)Narratble.” Global Media Narratives. Binghamton University. Binghamton, NY. 3/29/2011. Keynote

[4]Robyn R. Warhol: Neonarratative; or, How to Renter the Unnarratble in Realist Fiction and Contemporary Film. In: Phelan, James/Rabinowitz: Peter J.: A Companion to Narrative Theory. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005, pp. 220-231