Media Narrative: On the Question of Structure and Functions

Pavlov Dmitrii Nikolaevich Postgraduate Student, Department of Journalism, Media Communications and Advertising, A. S. Griboyedov Moscow University 111024, Russia, Central Federal District, Moscow, Sh. Enthusiastov str., 21 dima2011211@gmail.com Other publications by this author     Golovanov Aleksandr Nikolaevich Postgraduate Student, Department of Journalism, Media Communications and Advertising, A. S. Griboyedov Moscow University 111024, Russia, Central Federal District, Moscow, Sh. Enthusiastov str., 21 headmanjr@yandex.ru

Tyrkalova Varvara Vyacheslavovna Postgraduate Student, Department of Journalism, Media Communications and Advertising, A. S. Griboyedov Moscow University 111024, Russia, Central Federal District, Moscow, Sh. Enthusiastov str., 21 vasviva@ya.ru

The media narrative, understood as a set of media plots, adjusts to certain forms and ways of thinking by demonstrating examples and calls for their implementation or rejection, can be considered as a means of social influence. The object of the study is a media narrative, considered as a tool for forming public or personal opinion. The empirical basis of the work was Soviet posters, publications in the QMS and videos on the TikTok platform. The choice of such chronologically heterogeneous objects is due to the hypothesis of the work.

As a hypothesis of the research, the idea is put forward that successful narrative strategies, even chronologically distant, have similar principles of organization, which have become the subject of the study of the work.

The structural specificity of the studied materials lies in their narrative and plot organization. According to our assumption, the object of study reanimates the narrative archetypes of a fairy tale. This is due to the relative simplicity of the motifs used. We believe that materials of this nature have a motivating function ^{[1, p. 18]}. The narrator, in order to encourage the recipient to act, focuses on the necessary motive, which presumably embodies the artistic image of the hero in the viewer, thereby helping the personality to move into an active state.

The methodological basis of the study was the theory of V. Y. Propp. In his work "Morphology of a fairy tale" ^{[2, p. 35]}, he identified the motives that organize a fairy tale narrative into a single syntagmatic structure.

We can find these functions in the narrative structure ^{[3, p. 56]} of the objects of our research. Let 's denote their clear categorization:

·         First of all, we analyze the narrative of the Soviet poster. Since the poster acts as an illustrated story with text accompaniment, which includes a certain plot about a particular person, we can see how fairy-tale motifs are built with the help of various phenomena and characters ;

·         Similarly, we consider the narrative in modern media, the relevant research material for which, as we believe, are the news publications of the telegram channel "NEXTA Live" (10 publications for analysis were considered). They illustrate the use of narrative motives in the compilation of news materials;

· The third object of our research, which we designate as the narrative of social resources, is a group of three motivational videos posted on various accounts on the TikTok platform.

The narrative of the Soviet poster

The simplest and easiest form of media narrative to perceive is a comic strip or equally a Russian splint with its descendant – a poster. They are an illustrated story that includes a specific plot about a specific actor who exists against the background of various phenomena and characters that determine his actions.

The narrative consists of two types of signs: iconic (the drawing itself) and symbols (verbal explanations). In the case of posters — illustrative, supplemented with text explanations.

As Roland Barthes argued in his work "Mythology", "the visual image, of course, is more imperative than writing, it inspires us with its meaning immediately in its entirety, without decomposition into fractional elements <...>. As soon as the visual image begins to mean something, it becomes a letter itself, and as a letter it assumes a certain verbal design" ^{[4, p. 267]}.

Developing this idea, Barth believes that the visual gets its plot content through the verbal, that is, when by combining the image with the text, the latter, limiting the options for interpreting the former, begins to manifest itself as a naming function that leads to the consolidation of denotative meanings. "As for the "symbolic" message, here the verbal text no longer controls the acts of identification, but the processes of interpretation; such a text is like a vise that clamps connotative meanings, does not allow them to slip either into the zone of purely individual meanings <...>, or into the zone of meanings that cause unpleasant sensations" ^{[5, p. 305]}.

This is exactly the form of information dissemination, which directly "beats" into a person's perception and ensures the unhindered assimilation of it, was originally chosen by the creative tandem of V. V. Mayakovsky and A.M. Rodchenko in the "Windows of Satire of GROWTH". Drawings of a primitive nature with capacious statements in the form of a comic book contained short stories, the "combat" motives of which can be correlated with the functions of a fairy tale, derived by V. Ya. Propp.

So, in the "Windows of Satire of GROWTH", the hero of the narrative with various plots is a faceless Red Army soldier (sometimes the same worker). A soldier of the Red Army, depicted iconically in the form of a two-dimensional figure, as if cut out of paper, wearing a cap and carrying a gun. His antagonist in this case is a pot-bellied bourgeois in a tailcoat and top hat, as well as a representative of the striking force of the bourgeoisie in the form of a tsarist general or a Polish soldier, reflecting the current domestic and international events of Russia in the late 10s – early 20s of the XX century.

In the "Window of satire of GROWTH" "Gray! We are yelling down to you: It's enough to splash in the mud of the bourgeois. One salvation is in communism! Catch it! Fortunately, the only ladder" ^[6] demonstrates to the recipient that the Red Army soldier has information about achieving happiness, which can be achieved under the banner of the Russian Communist Party. There is a four-part plot here. Each part of the narrative is manifested by a specific Propp function. Thus, the lack of a high (up to the sun) natural value of a person is compensated by the acquisition of a magic remedy – communist ideology in the form of a ladder, which, giving the opportunity to get out of the bottom, allows the hero to eliminate the shortage and defeat himself.

In the "Window of satire of GROWTH" No. 76 ^{[7, p. 17]} "Comrades, do not give in to panic. She usually makes a big deal out of a molehill ...Without any panic, but not in vain, go to the front – coolly and soberly" the Red Army soldier appears before the antagonist as a cold-blooded, that is, a brave hero who chose sobriety, that is, responsible for his actions. Here, the narrative is also formed from four parts corresponding to the narrative's plot functions. The main motivator for the Red Army soldier, again, is the shortage, from which it is necessary to get rid of. In this case, the lack of sobriety leads to an exaggeration of enemy forces and a lack of their own capabilities. Therefore, having acquired such a magic remedy as sobriety, a red army soldier eliminates the shortage of his own forces, which leads to victory over the enemy.

It can be seen with the naked eye that the key plot function in the narrative about the Red Army worker in the revolutionary agitation and propaganda "Satire of GROWTH" was an event when a magic tool gets at the disposal of the hero.

In the "Window of Satire of GROWTH" No. 742 ^{[8, p. 58]} "We have lit this truth over the world. This truth has spread all over the world. Now we need these lights. Let this fire illuminate Russia!" a worker holds in his hand a torch (a magic tool) representing the image of communism, which eventually turns into an "Ilyich light bulb", a symbol of the electrification course proclaimed by V. I. Lenin.

In the "Window of satire of GROWTH" (number not found), "The world stands on a volcano. Bolder than the grid rot. The Comintern is a powerful magnet, The steel dust of uprisings pulls into a single sword, into a single shield" ^[9] the worker acquires a powerful hammer that helps him to destroy the bourgeois lattice that has bound the world. The lack of freedom in this case is eliminated by a hammer, which turns into a banner with the inscription "Comintern", with the handle of which the red worker crushed the pot-bellied bourgeois, thrown off the globe.

Along with these "magic" means, a rifle is always present in the hands of a Red Army soldier, and with a fixed bayonet, with which he strikes the antagonist and guards the border, which, in the context of a drill team in pre-revolutionary Russia, "attach bayonets", demonstrates his constant readiness to attack.

In most cases, the victory over a bourgeois, a tsarist general or a representative of the enemy army is described as an illustration of the phraseological units "raise on bayonets" and "topple into the abyss".

The universality of such an image of fighting enemies is confirmed by its application in various types of art. For example, in poetry. In the poem of Demyan the Poor , it says so:

"I will go with the Red Army

I 'm hiking,

I will lead a mortal battle

With the lordly rabble,

What's with the priest, what's with the fist

— The whole conversation:

In the belly of a thick bayonet Miroed!" ^{[10, p. 160]}

This was manifested in such posters as "The Window of satire of GROWTH" No. 62 "Ukrainian and Russian cry is one: "Let there be no master over the worker!"" ^[11], in which a Red Army soldier and a worker depicted in a way already known to us threw the bayonets of their guns at a frightened Polish hussar in an unbuttoned dolman and in a shako with a high sultan on his head.

In turn, in the "Window of satire of GROWTH" No. 146 ^{[12, p. 23]} "Until the red banner is strengthened, the rifle cannot be thrown by us", a red figure of a worker with a rifle with a bayonet raised above his head with a powerful fist drives a Polish soldier and a soldier of the White Army from the hill on which it is installed a red banner with the inscription: "RSFSR".

Over time, the image of the Red Army hero in revolutionary propaganda posters undergoes modification. It begins to acquire concretizing outlines. The same stencil image of the hero in the form of a red figure becomes a slightly more complicated iconic sign by drawing black lines of parts of the human face and body inside the figure of a Red Army soldier.

For example, on the poster of V. N. Denis "Hurry up to blow up the pan stronger! Don't forget the Baron either!" ^[13] the Red Army soldier, clenching his teeth in a snarl, demonstrating mock malice towards the enemy, brought his clasped fingers into a fist to hit the helpless Polish pan caught by his collar.

In such posters, as in Denis's campaign leaflet, the hero already acquires emotional characteristics that demonstrate to the audience his attitude towards the antagonists.

The same applies to the acquisition of personal traits in the image of a hero – a revolutionary worker. So, in the poster "The Road to World October" ^[14] by the same artist, a worker with the help of black lines, but already thickened to draw shadows, demonstrates a character, albeit presented in an iconic form, but already having an individual appearance of a person. Thanks to this concretization, the worker who raised the butt of a gun over the consultative meeting of the bourgeoisie to strike at them began to look like a stern man with facial muscles depicted by strict pointed forms.

The culmination of the development of the iconic image of the Red Army soldier was a Red Army soldier on the poster of D. S. Moore "Did you sign up as a volunteer?" ^[15]. In this poster, the revolutionary fighter has a portrait image (the poster's author portrayed himself). The representative of the revolutionary troops in this case was subjected to complete personification. At the same time, it should be noted that the departure from the iconic, stencil image of the hero occurred at the moment when such a prop story function came into force, how the Hero reacts to the actions of the future donor, in this case, an assistant. In the same concrete highly reduced narrative, the viewer himself becomes an assistant, the recipient of a Red Army soldier calling for joining the ranks of the revolutionary troops.

On this poster, the viewer's participation in the hero's appeal here and now to him is reinforced by the pointing gesture of the Red Army soldier in the form of an outstretched finger, as well as – with the help of wide-open eyes, the piercing gaze of the poster's author-hero, directed through the space of the drawing directly at the street passer-by, such a forced recipient of information.

Summing up, it is worth saying that the media narrative about the "adventures" of the hero-Red Army soldier in revolutionary propaganda posters developed on the basis of the manifestation of the functions of the characters that were derived by V. Y. Propp when studying the plots of Russian fairy tales. The leitmotif of the plots in the posters of the "Windows of Satire of Growth" was a shortage, which was eliminated by magic and led to victory over the enemy or themselves. The very image of the hero-Red Army soldier underwent changes, starting with an impersonal iconic image of a revolutionary character and gradually turning into a personified symbol of a fighter for the victory of the communist world order. His humanization occurred with the help of a more explicit connection of the poster with the recipient, which was facilitated by the function of the poster media narrative character. And it was presented by the reaction of the hero to the actions of the future assistant, in which the viewer himself acted, becoming a participant in the media narrative.

The narrative of modern media

If we talk about modern mass media, the media narrative can also be traced in various kinds of telegram channels that position themselves as covering the news agenda. The capabilities of the cross-platform system allow them to transmit information using text, video, audio and pictures, using one thing from this or combining several types of material presentation at once.

For this study, as a material for analysis, we took publications of the telegram channel "NEXTA Live" dated from May 2020 to March 2021. Then in Belarus, after the announcement of the official results of the presidential election, which was won by the current head of state A. G. Lukashenko, protests broke out across the country. The NEXTA Live telegram channel took a position opposed to the official authorities, expressing support for another candidate for president of the republic, S. G. Tikhanovskaya, and also actively covered the course of events in the country.

We believe that with a more detailed study of the publications of this telegram channel, we can say that manipulative techniques were encountered in many of them, and its editorial policy was based, among other things, on contributing to the destabilization of the situation in Belarusian society.

Manipulation techniques in this case, as we believe, are the particularity of a broader media narrative that NEXTA Live was building for the audience. If we follow the story that this telegram channel broadcast, we can say that Tikhanovskaya, who was actively supported by NEXTA Live in her publications, acted as a positive hero, and Lukashenka was her antagonist.

In reality, they entered into a struggle for votes among themselves, but later, after counting and announcing the official results of the elections, mass protests broke out across the country against their results ^[16].

In this study, we do not aim to analyze the political background, as well as the impact of the information reality created by the telegram channel on society in reality. We are only interested in the structure and functions in which the media narrative can manifest itself, consisting of individual publications, in accordance with the position of "NEXTA Live".

Within the framework of the chosen methodology, we selected the most representative examples of publications in the telegram channel, and also drew an analogy with Korney Chukovsky's children's poetic fairy tale "Cockroach" ^[17]. In the fairy tale itself, one can distinguish the narrative components that Propp writes about in his work: violation of the ban, trick, sabotage, counteraction, struggle, victory, difficult tasks and solutions, elimination of trouble, pursuit, salvation, punishment of the antihero, wedding or accession. In general, we would like to say that the media narrative used by the telegram channel "NEXTA Live" has many common intersections with the children's fairy tale "Cockroach". Up to the point that the main "antiheroes" have the same name.

Thus, NEXTA Live referred to Lukashenka in its publications as "cockroach" ^[18], "Cockroach Grigorievich" ^[19], "Cockroach Trehprotsentovich" ^[20], "Mustachioed Generalissimo" ^[21] and used the expression "cockroach state" ^[22]. That is, the pest was clearly designated. Further, in order to draw an analogy with the fairy tale of Korney Chukovsky, we quote an excerpt from the fairy tale, which begins with a picture where the animals rode merrily:

"... Driving and laughing,

Gingerbread is being chewed...".

And then:

"... Suddenly from the gateway

The terrible Giant,

Red - haired and mustachioed

Ta-ra-kan!

Cockroach, Cockroach, Cockroach!

He growls and screams,

And wiggles his moustache:

“Wait, don't rush,

I'll swallow you in a jiffy!

I will swallow, I will swallow, I will not have mercy" ... "

It can be said that, according to the telegram channel "NEXTA Live", the blissful picture of what is happening was disrupted by the appearance of a malicious pest in the person of Lukashenka (to whom, by the way, during the previous years of his presidency, since 1994, such claims, similar to those that eventually resulted in mass protests in 2020, did not arise). In the fairy tale, the animals, as usual, were first afraid of a cockroach.

On May 29, 2020 (the day of S. L. Tikhanovsky's detention and even before the mass protests), the telegram channel published the following message: "A man who brought the country to the handle is coming to you. From the roofs, through the sights of rifles, snipers will look at you. And he will tell you that you are to blame for everything. Your actions? Barricade yourself and keep the villain out? No. In emergency mode, everything should be licked, cleaned, painted and repaired so that he would be satisfied with the trip (...)" ^[23]. Here we see and observe the function of wrecking.

And then a Hippopotamus appeared (here we would include all sorts of public figures who called for "peaceful" protests in Belarus), who said "crocodiles and whales":

"... "Who is not afraid of a villain

And fight the monster,

I'm that hero

I'll give you two frogs

And I'll give you a fir cone!”

“We are not afraid of him,

Your giant:

We are teeth,

We are fangs,

We hoof it!”

And a cheerful crowd

The beasts rushed into battle..."

And two days after that, on May 31, 2020, a message was published: "Komarovka chants "release" and "stop cockroach"!" ^[24]. What can be attributed to the function of counteraction and struggle.

The fact that wrestling is "fun" strongly reminded NEXTA Live. So, what is happening in the country, she dubbed "hangouts", which has a connotation of a positive nature, mainly among young people ("The party in Kiev Square was transformed into a procession. Without any leaders!" ^[25]; "The bike party is already not far from the ONT building" ^[26], the last message was accompanied by a winking smiling smiley face; "There are always cool parties on Zybitskaya!" ^[27], etc.). Here, by the way, we see an example of agitation that shows the fight function.

In reality, such calls eventually escalated into clashes between protesters and law enforcement agencies, where protesters used Molotov cocktails, built street barricades, in addition, there were victims on both sides. NEXTA Live actively supplied "peaceful" protesters with information on how to do "couplings" correctly, published memos for them, urged them not to forget about "means of protection from punishers" ^[28].

Below we will quote more lines from Chukovsky's poem, and then draw their analogy with the publications of NEXTA Live:

"... So the Cockroach became

the winner,

And the lord of forests and fields.

The animals submitted to the mustache.

(Damn him,

the damned one!)

And he walks between them,

Gilded belly stroking:

“Bring it to me, animals,

your children,

I'm having them for dinner tonight

I'm eating!" ... "

This image of a malicious fairy-tale enemy, as we believe, is most consistent with the following publication "NEXTA Live": "When the expensive (but never useful due to the cool weather) Daikin industrial air conditioner was taken away, and the luxurious red carpets were removed, it suddenly turned out that the podium on which the Mustachioed Generalissimo yesterday took the parade in the time of his #ugshow, (...) Everything is so with them. Absolutely everything. We will not be surprised if the clock strikes one day, and the chic “Maybach” for $ 1.4 million turns into a pumpkin. Although not. In potatoes" ^[29].

In addition, it came to such publications: "Lukashenka wanted to eat a pomeranian... " ^[30]. Here again, we see the function of sabotage.

We believe that the following lines of the poem would fit into the further logic of the NEXTA Live telegram channel if it were transferred to the Belarusian society, which allegedly suffers due to the fact that Lukashenka again becomes head of state following the election results:

"... Poor, poor animals!

Howling, crying, roaring!

In every den

And in every cave

The evil glutton is cursed..."

Then, apparently, according to the idea of the telegram channel "NEXTA Live", S. G. Tikhanovskaya was supposed to be the savior-sparrow, whose function was to be difficult tasks and solutions, as well as the elimination of trouble.In turn, in a children's fairy tale, such functions were acquired by a sparrow:

"... Took and pecked a Cockroach,

So there is no giant.

Serves the giant right,

And he didn't have a mustache left..."

And the whole society (at Chukovsky – animal, at NEXTA Live – Belarusian) had to rejoice at this fact, which would mean the manifestation of the function of accession:

"... That's glad, that's glad

The whole animal family,

Glorify, congratulate

A swashbuckling Sparrow! ... "

When studying the media narrative in modern media, we take into account that Prop leads 31 functions in total, and we understand that not all of them are used, however, here I would like to note that what is happening in reality does not always conform to the plots of fairy tales, however, it is quite possible to trace a certain general trend, which we did by proposing to a number of functions have several examples that fit into their logic.

In addition, we managed to find a fairy tale that, as we believe, is most fully and succinctly consistent with the media narrative of the telegram channel "NEXTA Live", up to the same name of the "main villain". It is worth noting that not only we paid attention to the similarity. For example, the Russian website of satirical "news" Panorama published a material under the heading "Cockroach banned in Belarus". Korney Chukovsky" ^[31].  Thus, we believe that this can serve as a good example of how this whole situation was reflected and perceived in the mass consciousness.

The narrative of social resources

In addition, the narrative paradigm is observed not only in poster materials or in the QMS, it is clearly visible in the entertainment content of the service for creating short TikTok videos. For a more visual study, we chose motivating content (hereinafter MK), which helps the viewer to go through a subjective emotional change ^{[32, p. 13]}. The media narrative contained in the MC is able to encourage the recipient to solve a personal crisis ^{[33, p. 140]}. The popularity of such materials indicates the need for an academic analysis of narrative motives. According to our assumption, MK reanimates fairy-tale archetypes, the use of which helps to form peculiar scenario solutions to various crisis situations ^{[34, p. 83]}. Of course, such a technique is called psychological and therapeutic, it is temporary and cannot replace professional psychological assistance ^{[35, p. 46]}. It should be noted that in this paper we focus exclusively on the structural aspect of the MC.

The object in this part of the study were three videos that are posted in two thematic accounts. Their representativeness is due to the high number of views, likes, as well as a large number of comments.

(Let's turn to the analysis of the material.)

The first account reviewed in this study is called "Upgrade | Motivation" (1.1 million subscribers, 44.9 million likes). It can be noticed that the videos are divided into categories: financial literacy, a message from a movie, quotes from books, tips.

The first video in TikTok that reveals the use of fabulous narratives is called "Drake and Lil Wayne in front of a crowd of fans" ^[36]. The absence of a strict composition of the material is interesting, however, invariant motifs developed by V. Y. Propp help to structure information for a more understandable perception ^{[37, p. 57]}. It is noteworthy that the choice of certain functions depends on the purpose of the video.

Obviously, the narrative begins with the communication of the main character and the "magic giver". The following invariant motifs are present in the composition of the video:

1. "You gave me 30 thousand dollars, which I was able to bring home to my mom" - receiving a magic remedy.

2. "It changed our next six months. I will never forget it because it is the most important amount I have earned. We fought poverty." – moving to another realm and fighting.

Thus, a media personality appears before the viewer, who, before gaining fame, goes through certain tests that help transform the hero.

3. The invariants victory and accession are shown at the moment when a man manages to sort out a crisis situation: "Look at this success, you did it, you helped me achieve everything!"

4. An important element accompanying the MK in TikTok is the output at the end of the material. In this case, the magic giver addresses the audience with the message that the impossible does not exist: "Make noise for yourself, everything in your life is possible!"

Special attention should be paid to the contextual work of the viewer with the video. Due to the relatively short duration of the video, subscribers can reconstruct the narrative from the context.

To display the frequency of using fairy-tale narratives, we turn to the following video on this account: "Elon Musk charges for actions" ^[38].

1. So, the main character tells about a success story that can happen to every person. "Any rich person was not like that initially. Your dreams can be realized if you make an effort and go through a lot of blows from life" (-) – the absence invariant, which involves depriving the hero of support from the outside and creates a prerequisite for the future plot.

2. "Do you want success? Act towards success!" – fighting and moving to another realm. These motives are used throughout the MK in order to show the need to overcome the crisis of personality.

3. It is noteworthy that in this video there is no verbal accompaniment of the result to which the main character should come after the transformation. The viewer is shown a video sequence of the achievements of Elon Musk, including the development of all his inventions: the SpaceX project, Tesla. This is how the author makes it clear to the viewer that in order to achieve the goal it is necessary to overcome difficulties.

Recurring motifs are present not only on this account. The "Unistar" account in TikTok has 19.3 thousand subscribers and 366 thousand likes. The content is connected with the music sphere and is entertaining, but narrative elements are also present in it.

The first video contains information about the singer Rihanna and is called: "How did a girl from a tiny island become a world star?" ^[39]. An important element of this video is the presence of a narrator who compositionally builds a narrative.

1. "A girl from a small island who sold clothes in a tent achieved world fame in a couple of years" (-) - invariant dispatch, it presupposes the beginning of active plot actions. It reflects the beginning of the main character's journey.

2. "In her native Barbados, a girl came to audition for Evan Rogers" – the first function of the donor. The girl meets a magical assistant who helps her begin the transformation.

3. "Since Rihanna was 14 at the time, he made an offer to go to New York and record a demo to her mom." This part of the story reflects a key moment in the life of the main character – moving to another kingdom. Rihanna finds herself in a completely different life, she is accompanied by her mother, who serves as a mentor, and a magical giver – producer.

4. "The demo came to Jay Z, who at that time was the director of the label. Rihanna came out of the audition only at three o'clock in the morning with a contract to record six albums. She worked only during school holidays" – invariant motives reaction to the actions of the future donor and struggle show the difficulties that the singer faced. On the way to her goal, she overcame many fears and difficulties.

5. "And what happened next, you know ..." The narrator resorts to the technique of visualizing the achievements of the main character, he lists famous musical compositions recorded by Rihanna on the way to popularity.

Thus, we claim that bloggers use narrative motives to create the plot component of videos. To encourage the viewer to act, narrators use the motives of struggle and transfiguration, which complete the artistic image of the hero, continuing it in the subscriber. In this case, motivating content, like a fairy tale, shows the transition from one state of the hero to another, and also encourages the viewer to this transition.

Conclusions

The results of the study showed that the constituent elements of the narrative of a fairy tale are widely used in the media sphere and represent the basis for the formation of media plots. At the same time, the Propp functions continue to operate in different historical and cultural contexts. They differ only in the use of various means of information dissemination that are available or popular in society at a particular time.

Forming into various motives, each individual narrative has its own set of functions, regardless of the mass communication medium. The combination of functions in narratives is formed taking into account the purpose pursued by the author of the information message. In turn, the function of struggle has a universal meaning for each media narrative. Her role turned out to be the main one in completing the image of the hero by terminating the set of functions in each specific media narrative.

It should be noted that the media narrative about the "adventures" of the hero of the Red Army in the revolutionary propaganda posters of the "Windows of Satire of Growth" contained the leitmotif of the shortage, which was eliminated with the help of a magic remedy and led to victory over the enemy or themselves. The image of the hero changed, turning into a personified symbol of a fighter for the victory of the communist world order. His humanization occurred with the help of a more explicit connection of the poster with the recipient, which was facilitated by the function of the poster media narrative character.

Similarly, we managed to find a fairy tale that, as we believe, is most fully and succinctly consistent with the media narrative of the telegram channel "NEXTA Live", up to the same name of the "main villain". At the same time, the similarity of plot functions in these two narratives belonging to different historical and cultural contexts is clearly visible. In addition, this context is reflected in the public consciousness as an example from the satirical publication "Panorama".

Within the framework of social networks, we can also notice the active work of the media narrative with the viewer. The psychological motivating content of the TilTok platform suggests changes in the self-perception and self-identification of subscribers, offering them a more effective model of behavior in crisis situations. So, we observe changes not only of the main character of the media production, but also possible changes of the recipient.