The Big Issue

Tuesday 25th February 
L/O - to research institutions and ideologies behind case study project
The Big Issue is a magazine that talks about the worlds ongoing issues and problems, and implements things going on in society into their magazine.

Covers
Target audience - The target audience is young adults
Values and Beliefs - They believe in bringing the words situations to light and value their opinions
Representations - The Big Issue represent themselves as enjoyable and lighthearted, as they continue to pin jokes and phrases on their covers. This is then opposed by the issue they are talking about and the topics.

The Big issue was started by John Bird and Gordon Riddick in 1991. It was made to raise awareness for societies problems, whilst primarily tackling homelessness as a whole. The magazine employ homeless people to sell their magazine out of the streets to help them with an income. Vendors buy the magazine for £1.25 and sell on for £2.50

The topics covered include mainstream issues in society, for example politics, arts and entertainment, etc.

The target audience are 18 to 50 year olds shown by research done by The Big Issue. This is also shown by the mix of playful covers and serious covers.

Customers buy it from the vendors for £2.50, who buy it for £1.25.


Ideology - the extent to which media products such as newspapers contain and communicate particular ways of looking at the world, an assumed set of values and beliefs that news providers assume its audiences to posses and to share.

These maybe the general values of society, for example the importance of human life or attitudes towards crime and punishment. It might be values that only a specific group in society share like anti nuclear or veganism.

In a lot of mainstream newspapers, you can clearly see Gramsci's model of the social political landscape of a culture or society as being Hegemonic. The hegemonic view is the dominant political view of a culture or country. This value shapes the way that most of society see the world.

The Ideologies and Values of The Big Issue:
The Big Issue values democracy over everything. This is shown through the use of different political views on the political covers. For example, a cover of the big issue included Nigel Farage on the front cover presenting him in an negative light. However, this is also shown with covers of Boris Johnson and also Donald Trump. They cover different sides of politics, showing everyone the benefits and the detriments of each leader and their parties. The Big Issue values different opinions, unlike newspapers where they are party-specific. This suggests that the target audience is very ranged, for example 18-40 year olds. People around these ages are very interested in politics, as they are more likely to vote as it is their futures and place they are living. (They are more left wing)

The Big Issue also values celebrity lives and their work, creating a broad balance between politics and entertainment. In almost every cover of each celebrity, they are presented in a positive light. They make the celebrity look good, whether it be an actor, singer, etc. They do this by having the celebrity with a light coloured background, which presents them as joyful and easily approachable. They keep their audience up to date by showing a range of different people with different situations ongoing in their lives. Doing this, broadens their audience. They reach out to a lower aged audience, as they are more likely to want to read about their favourite heroes and people that they look up to.

They value social awareness and social issues also. For example, other covers show immigration, revolution, capitalism, etc. The ideologies of this is that they are showing that it is important to the reader, and showing that they care about what is important. They also celebrate British culture often through their front covers. For example, they have British actors, British singers, and British politics involved in their magazines, making their magazine audience

Target Audience
L/O - To identify the primary target audience for The Big Issue
Psychographics of the Target Audience:

• People who are interested in music and entertainment as a whole.
• Older aged people
• Educated
• They care about others situations.

Tuesday 10th March
L/O - to analyse Big Issue covers effectively

What ideologies are represented in this cover and how have they been represented? What does it tell us about the target audience?

To start, the Big Issue has social ideologies. This is shown through the use of the cover lines on this cover of The Big Issue. We can see that some of them are '94-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor' and 'The Sign Language Rapper'. These are just two of the many stories in the magazine, and yet they are so different. This shows that they are covering different stories which appeals to different target audiences, broadening their viewership. It suggests that by showing different stories, their audience are socially aware. It is also linking past social groups and present social groups by having '94 year old' and 'rapper'. 

'Fantastic Plastic Ecobricks' suggests that they are for the prevention of Global Warming. This says that their target audience care about global issues. It will also get people talking about their magazine, as it shows that they also care about the world in which we live in. 

Exam Practice

This magazine has a indirect mode of address. This is because of the lexis used; there is no 'you' or any of the sort on this cover. Despite this, the cover is presented in a serious and monotone way through the lexis. The line ' The Battle For Peace' represents the soldiers at war, which would make the audience feel sympathetic for the people at war, despite the cover not even being direct address. The readers attention is brought straight towards the soldiers green army helmet. This stands out from the black and white toned background


The Big Issue have addressed different target audiences with this magazine. The cover lines in the top left feature famous band members and celebrities. For example Keith Moon was a drummer for the band 'The Who'. He died in 1978. This would bring in fans of 'The Who', but also members of past society's, linking back to the time that Keith Moon was alive. There is then the leader of the Wu Tang Clan, who are still making music today. The leader is named RZA. This will bring in the younger audience members, as they are still around today and feel that it is specifically for them.

The magazine is indirect, as we cannot see the soldiers eyes. This makes it seem like it is not just one soldiers identity, however this one person is covering a lot more soldiers than himself. To the audience, it makes it seem like 'The Big Issue' cares about a lot of peoples situations and problems.  Also, the lexis used - ' THE BATTLE FOR PEACE OF MIND BACK HOME' - shows that The Big Issue care about their readers, soldiers, and people's problems as a whole. This is because they are showing that they understand that soldiers lives don't just go back to normal; some suffer from various mental issues, some have physical issues, etc. 

The mental health awareness is also shown through the colour palette. This is because of the dull and dark colours used. The black and white of the man shows that having trouble standing out and being who he is, as he is a similar colour to the standard monochrome background.



Friday 13th March

Bullet point analysis:

• Intertextuality of the 'Sex Pistols' 'NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS' album - same colour pallet, same font. Links to entertainment
• Lexis - "National Identity" - intriguing to the audience and makes them wonder what it's about.
• Banksy mentioned - audience are interested in art and entertainment, links to them.

Analyse why The Big Issue magazine has used an intertextual approach to the referendum on its front cover.

To start off, this magazine from The Big Issue has intertextuality all over it. They have put MPs heads on top of the stars of ABBA, with quotes from their songs to get their opinions across of Brexit. They have used Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's first minister, David Cameron (prime minister of Britain at the time), Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage (two big associates for leaving the EU).

Firstly, the main cover line uses lexis to get the message across to the audience. The words "The Winner Takes It All" is a reference to one of ABBA's biggest songs, which people are most likely to know about. It links well with the situation of what the leaders of the parties were in, which was the winner takes it all. Any listener or fan of ABBA will recognise the main cover line, which broadens The Big Issues audience, as old and young people listen to the band.

Secondly, most of the faces on this cover are members of right wing parties. We can see that The Big Issue have taken the time to, in a way, mock the political figures by using cutouts of them making weird faces. This represents them to the audience that they are not taking their jobs and the Brexit referendum seriously, which shows that The Big Issue has connotations of a left wing magazine by making and poking fun the right wing politicians. The main image also shows them dancing and singing on stacks on money, this also shows the audience that they are not taking their jobs seriously, yet still getting the wages of over 3 times the average yearly salary of a normal person. 

The lexis in the main image in the speech bubbles is also intertextuality, with it being lines and names of songs by ABBA, for example take a chance on me in Nigel Farage's bubble. This will also be picked up by audience members, and the people who love entertainment and music. The globe in the top right of the main image could be representing the rest of the world. The people in power and politicians were making a mockery of our country and the time. The intertextuality of ABBA helps towards this, as they entertained people, and that is what the government were doing at this time.