Chapter 40 Summary

In Chapter 40, Narratives in The Media by Michel de Certeau, he discusses how the media is mostly all in narratives and from the moment we get up to the moment we go to bed we are constantly bombarded with different narratives. All of these narratives influence how we live our lives, we are use these as a model to how we live our own life and the ideas we had. An example given in the after read was the study of women who watch soap operas. These women believed that these soap operas offer an insight on how to deal with relationships and as an escape. Certeau goes on to say that our society has become a "recited society" and there are three parts to it. The first is STORIES, which is the medias use of advertising and the narrative stories in them. The second is CITATIONS of the stories. And the third is RECITATION of the stories, which is the retelling of the stories. Without even being consciously aware, these stories and parts of the narratives has influenced dramatically the way that we live and think.

Defining Words I Did Not Know:

-Simulacra as defined by dictionary.com:
1. a slight, unreal, or superficial likeness or semblance.
2. an effigy, image, or representation: a simulacrum of Aphrodite.

-Ex Cathedra as defined by dictionary.com:
Descriptive term for an official pronouncement from the pope. Ex cathedra is Latin for “from the chair.” Roman Catholics believe that the pope speaks infallibly when speaking ex cathedra on questions of faith or morals, such as when Pope Pius XII declared in 1950 that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was physically taken up to heaven after her death.