Prototypical story

Stories exist at (at least) two levels: The underlying event level and the surface manifestation (communication) of the underlying event level.
There are various morphs and variants, but this is an attempt to define the prototypical story. At the underlying event level we have:
One or more protagonists.
One or more goals that the protagonist(s) are pursuing.
A concrete setting (rule-based world) in which the events take place.
One or more events in which the protagonist takes goal-directed action but which results in an unexpected outcome. This outcome is significantly better or significantly worse on some value dimension that what was expected.
Here are some non-stories that lack one of these elements.
A protagonist is an agent that the reader (or listener or watcher) empathizes with. (A narrative description of a sequence of events, even in a concrete setting, does not in itself constitute a story). "Joe woke up. Joe walked into the kitchen. Joe ate a muffin. Joe went to work. Joe came home." This is not a story. It is not crafted so that we care about Joe. We are not really "feeling" or "seeing" the world from his POV.
The protagonist must be pursuing at least one goal that has significant value. (We would not write or find interesting a "story" about someone trying to bite a sandwich UNLESS there were some unusual significance to the action -- it is poison, or they are overcoming a deep-seated food prejudice, or they are paralyzed, or incredibly hungry, etc.) "Joe wanted to eat a sandwich. Joe ate a sandwich. Joe was not quite so hungry afterwards as he had been before."
"A being wanted to live. In order to live, it seemed necessary to take action A. Action A didn't work. It was necessary to take a risky action, B. The being took the action B. The being lived." This is not a story, though it might be an abstract outline for a story.
"Joe needed to win Sally. So, he told her that she meant the universe to him. They were married and lived happily ever after in Phoenix, Arizona on Elm Street." OR "Joe jumped out of the Navy Trainer without his parachute from 20,000 feet. He wanted to live. But he fell to the ground and was killed." No unexpected or unusual outcomes --- no story.
At the surface level, the underlying story may be communicated in various means:
1. a sequence of spoken words and gestures.
2. a written sequence of words.
3. a filmed sequence (which may or may not also include words).
4. a painting (which may or may not have a caption).
5. a photograph (which may or may not have a caption).
6. a still cartoon (which may or may not have written words).
Of course, every sequence of words, painting, cartoon, etc. does not depict a story.