Storytelling for Media

The term "storytelling" is gaining prominence both in academia and industry — rightly so — because narrative techniques allow for particularly effective and sustainable communication. Stories are what catch our attention, move us, teach us to empathise, and create strong memories. This introduction to the strategies of storytelling uses fundamental scientific texts as well as dramaturgical guides and practical examples. Dr. Joachim Friedmann, professor and writer of scripts for tv, comics, and games, presents a both theoretically-sound and practically-applicable guide for the analysis and design of narratives in various media, not only for students, but for everyone who wants to understand how stories are created.



Joachim Friedmann ist Autor für Fernsehserien (ARD, ZDF, SAT1, RTL) sowie Comictexter (Disney, Egmont Ehapa, Carlsen Verlag) und hat zudem zahlreiche interaktive Online-Formate entwickelt, unter anderem für Microsoft Deutschland und den Deutschen Fußballbund DFB. Er lehrt an verschiedenen Universitäten und Hochschulen zum Thema interaktives und transmediales Storytelling, Serielles Schreiben sowie Film- und Fernsehdramaturgie, u.a. an der Universität Hildesheim, der Filmuniversität Potsdam-Babelsberg, der Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg und der Hamburg Media School. 2016 wurde er mit einer Arbeit zu Transmedialem Erzählen zum Dr. phil. promoviert. Seit 2017 ist er Professor für Serial Storytelling an der Internationalen Filmschule Köln.



1 Storytelling – More than Just Telling a Story

2 The Narrative Figure – Life, Theme, Function

2.1 Functional Figures

2.2 Mimetic Figures

2.3 Thematic Figures

2.4 Anti-narrative Figures

3 Setting – The Narrative Space

3.1 Juri Lotman and Semantic Space

3.2 Other Options for Spatial Semantization

3.3 Hierarchization of Spatial Events

4 Binary Narrative Oppositions – Opposites Make Sense

4.1 The Meaning of the Narrative

4.2 Production of Meaning through Binary Narrative Oppositions

4.3 Idea vs. Counter Idea – Narrative Oppositions in Film Dramaturgy

4.4 Binary Narrative Oppositions as a Structuring Principle in Serial and Interactive Narratives

5 Conflict – Obstacles Force Action

5.1 Conflicts as Initial Triggers for Action

5.2 Basic Forms of Conflict

5.3 The Universal Conflict

5.4 Conflict Types and Types of Plot

5.5 Want and Need

6 Transformation – What Needs to Change?

6.1 Transformation vs. Change

6.2 Transformation as a Criterion of Closure

6.3 The Cyclic Transformation

6.4 Transformations in Interactive Narratives

7 Emotion – Progression of Feelings

7.1 Emotions as Genres

7.2 Emotional Progression as a Structural Principle of Narratives

8 Turning Points – the Expected Surprise

8.1 Scientific Concepts of the Turning Point

8.2 The Turning Point in Applied Dramaturgy

8.3 The Effect of Turning Points in Literature and Film

8.4 Turning Points and Transformation in Interactive Narratives

9 Narrative Structure – The Hero's Journey in Three Acts

9.1 Dramatic Structure

9.2 Mythological Structure

9.3 Oral Structure

9.4 Interactive Structure

10 Causal Relationships – Why and How?

10.1 Causality as a Condition for Narrativity

10.2 Forms of Causality

10.3 Forms of Non-causal Narrative

10.4 Causality and Interactivity

11 Subtext and Gapping – Involving the Recipients

11.1 Gapping as a Text- and Media-Specific Strategy

11.2 Subtext

11.3 Generating Tension through Information Management

11.4 Information Management in Interactive Stories

12 Semantic Objects – McGuffins, Horcruxes and Holy Grails

12.1 Plot-functional vs. Non-functional

12.2 Semantic Objects in Narrative Media

12.3 The Semantization of Objects as a Communication Strategy

13 Epilogue: Values and a Worldview

14 Glossary

15 Bibliography

16 List of Figures