Fragmented Narrative: Telling and Interpreting Stories in the Twitter Age (Critical Perspectives on Citizen Media)

With the rise and rise of social media, today’s communication practices are significantly different from those of even the recent past. A key change has been a shift to very small units, exemplified by Twitter and its strict 280-character limit on individual posts. Consequently, highly fragmented communication has become the norm in many contexts. __Fragmented Narrative__ sets out to explore the production and reception of fragmentary stories, analysing the Twitter-based narrative practices of Donald Trump, the Spanish political movement Podemos, and Egyptian activists writing in the context of the 2013 military intervention in Egypt. Sadler draws on narrative theory and hermeneutics to argue that narrative remains a vital means for understanding, allowing fragmentary content to be grasped together as part of significant wholes. Using Heideggerian ontology, he proposes that our capacity to do this is grounded in the centrality of narrative to human existence itself. The book strives to provide a new way of thinking about the interpretation of fragmentary information, applicable both to social media and beyond. Contributing to the emerging literature in existential media studies, this timely volume will interest students, scholars and researchers of narrative, new media and language and communication studies. Cover Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction The Ongoing Relevance of Narrative Introduction to the Three Contexts Referred to Throughout the Book Overview of Chapters Notes 1 Theorising Fragmented Narrative: Knowing and Being Narrative Knowing Narrative and Being Narrative and Being-With-Others Defining Narrative Temporal and Spatial Specificity Relationality Figuration Sense of An Ending Conclusion Notes 2 Telling Stories With Fragments: Vertical, Horizontal and Ambient Narrative Narrative and Chronicle Unstable Texts, Slippery Sjuzhets and Fuzzy Fabulae Vertical Storytelling Horizontal Storytelling Ambient Storytelling Conclusion Notes 3 Interpreting Fragmented Stories I: Open Texts, Distanciation and Writerly Readers Dialogue and Distance Attention and Inattention Gaps and Fragments The Weakened Author (function) Conclusion Notes 4 Interpreting Fragmented Stories II: Existential Understanding, Limited Horizons and Narrative Forestructuring Understanding and Interpretation Interpretive Horizons Narrative Horizons Metanarratives Masterplots Conclusion Notes 5 Narrative and Truth: Correspondence, Coherence and Disclosure Truth As Correspondence Truth As Coherence Truth As Disclosure Openness Fragmented Disruption Social Media and Unifying-Repairing Effects Conclusion Notes Conclusion: Stories, Citizens and Being Glossary of Heideggerian Terms Bibliography Index "With the rise and rise of social media, today's communication practices are significantly different from those of even the recent past. A key change has been a shift to very small units, exemplified by Twitter and its strict 240-character limit on individual posts. Consequently, highly fragmented communication has become the norm in many contexts. Fragmented Narrative sets out to explore the production and reception of fragmentary stories, analysing the Twitter-based narrative practices of Donald Trump, the Spanish political movement Podemos, and Egyptian activists writing in the context of the 2013 military intervention in Egypt. Sadler draws on narrative theory and hermeneutics to argue that narrative remains a vital means for understanding, allowing fragmentary content to be grasped together as part of significant wholes. Using Heideggerian ontology, he proposes that our capacity to do this is grounded in the centrality of narrative to human existence itself. The book strives to provide a new way of thinking about the interpretation of fragmentary information, applicable both to social media and beyond. Contributing to the emerging literature in existential media studies, this timely volume will interest students, scholars and researchers of narrative, new media and language and communication studies"-- Provided by publisher