Sound and Music in Narrative Multimedia : A macroscopic discussion of audiovisual relations and auditory narrative functions in film, television and video games

Abstract

This thesis examines how we perceive an audiovisual narrative - here defined as film, television and video games - and seeks to establish a descriptive framework for auditory stimuli and their narrative functions in this regard. I initially adopt the viewpoint of cognitive psychology an account for basic information processing operations. I then discuss audiovisual perception in terms of the effects of sensory integration between the visual and auditory modalities on the construction of meaning in the context of a narrative. On this theoretic foundation, I compile from literature and observation a system of descriptive sound categories that I apply to selected case studies.