Big Issue Task - Due 27/03/2020

Notes made from the presentation

History

• Founded in 1991 by John Bird and Gordon Riddick who were friends since university.
• They launched The Big Issue to help dismantle poverty by creating an opportunity for homeless people because the number of homeless people was growing in London.
• Since starting, it's helped more than 92,000 vendors earn £115 million.
• A vendor is a homeless person who is selling the magazine.
• Magazine sold to vendors for £1.25 who then sell the magazine for £2.50, making them a micro-entrepreneur who is working and not begging.
• It was founded for additional support for vendors and services to help them address their issues of homelessness.
• Since being established, it has helped provide services like housing, education, finances and health for homeless people, helping them to regain their independence. 

Financial background

• The body shop provided capital to the equivalent of £50,000, which helped publish the magazine. 
• The magazine was initially published every month but became weekly as the magazine gained success. 
• In 2001, the magazine sold 300,000 copies every week but this reduced to 125,000 in 2011.
• In January 2012, they relaunched with an increased focus on campaigning and political journalism which helped to increase the cover price.
• In 2016, they surpassed 200 million sales of the magazine.

Political context

• The magazine includes a political section that focuses on ending homelessness, such as making more shelters so that there is more availability for those sleeping on the streets through the cold nights.
• They also include articles about reducing poverty in England such as the Isle of Man. 
• The problem is being tackled so that it doesn't grow and become a bigger issue in the future. 

Denotation = what you see (the shape of Africa in the poster)

Connotation = what this suggests (it's the focus of this issue)

Source A

Analysis
Denotation = Trump is holding the Earth
Connotation = To show Trump is in charge of Earth and controls everything it does.

Denotation = Trump's head is bigger than the Earth and his body
Connotation = To show he is again in charge of the Earth but to show he is also getting big-headed and isn't thinking about consequences.

Denotation = The caption has words in different sizes
Connotation = It makes the keywords stand out and makes the readers realise and entices them to read.

Denotation = Someone flying above Trump on an Eagle looking down on him.
Connotation = This shows someone is looking over Trump not liking what he is doing and shows he might not be as powerful as he thinks.

Denotation = The White House in the bottom right-hand corner with a man running away from it.
Connotation = That what Trump is doing is scary and making people not want to be with him.

Masthead = The masthead is bold and stands out against the background colour so everyone can see who published the magazine.

Main image = The main image has been edited to stand out for the audience and lets them know what this issue is about.

Coverlines = The coverlines allow the readers to see extra stories that are included within this magazine. 

Pug = The pug in this issue updates the readers on sales that the big issue is having.

Colour = The blue background makes it seem like he is in the sky depicting him like a god-like figure adding to the powerful connotations they are giving him.

Layout = Trump has been enlarged and centred to make him the catching image of the issue.

Images = Trump, the Earth and the White House have all been used to create this powerful image of Trump to contrast with the text of him getting too powerful and foreseeing something bad to happen.

Comparison of two front covers

Source B

Being compared with the picture analysed above.

In source A, the big issue uses the main image in comparison with the text to show that Trump is getting too ahead of himself and thinks he is too powerful. It hints at him abusing his power thinking he can control the world and that people are scared at in. However, Source B is a direct contrast as it presents Trump as a weak individual and almost like a joke. It describes him as a flake which is known for being crumbly, especially under pressure, and the main image is him as an ice cream that is melting which could show that he is losing his power over the country and is slowing melting out of power.

However, even though the two pictures are very different, the texts are both negative towards Trump. In Source A, they say 'what's the worst that could happen...' which is used to show Trump's naivety to what he's doing and that he is blindsided to the negative impacts he is having. In Source B, they use a pun of 'flake news' to show the readers how they are being given fake news from Trump, again being very negative about him.

Finally, they both have enlarged Trump and centralised him so he is the key focus within the front cover. This is to catch the reader's attention as Trump is a massive key figure anywhere in the world today and it would interest people as to why he is on a front cover. This would also help the vendors to sell their copies which ultimately, can help towards ending the problem of poverty and homelessness.


Essay question
Explain how the representations in magazines reflect their contexts. Refer to the two The Big Issue front covers you have studied. (15 marks)

The representations given from a magazine are crucial in helping the reader understand the context being given. In Source A, they use a series of important images to help the reader identify the political context being given to them. The use of the White House underneath Donald Trump is used to iterate to the reader how he believes he is above where he sits and thinks he is the controller of the world. By using this specific layout in making Trump bigger than the Earth and the White House, where he lives because of his position in America, it shows that he himself believes he is more powerful than he actually is and hints at him abusing his power as president thinking he can get away with anything and be in control of everything.


The magazine uses representations really well to show the context to the reader. Another way they do this is by including the Eagle on the front cover above Trump. An eagle is the emblem of the United States and has been including to again create and show a political context to the readers. By laying the front cover out by putting this eagle above Trump, it's showing that no matter how powerful he thinks he is, the country will always be stronger. This will entice the reader to read this issue as it includes political context about a very powerful man and some issues he could face without him realising himself that he is coming to them.

In Source B, they link text and image together to create a context for the reader to infer. Using the ice cream picture which has been edited to look like Trump and linking this with 'flake news' shows to the reader that Trump has created some fake news to the nation and this, therefore, gives this issue of the magazine a political context that most readers would want to read about. This political context is crucial to showing the reader what the magazine is going to be about and again, is used to grab their attention to reading The Big Issue.

Another representation that they use to reflect the political context is then cover star. By using a cover star like Donald Trump, who is a very famous person within the world, it announces to the reader that this issue will include some political background on what Trump has been doing recently. This reflects this context as it uses someone who is very critical to the political world in a huge country worldwide like the United States of America to increase their popularity of the newspaper to people who would be more interested in this particular topic. It also draws your attention to the paper when you're walking past the vendors which will help them sell the papers on, which is the aim of the Big Issue to achieve their dream of reducing poverty and homelessness to the absolute minimum.

Overall, they use these clear representations to draw the reader's attention to the paper, and then with a closer look, you can identify a clear context and what The Big Issue is trying to show their readers. This reflects the context to the reader and makes the theme of most of the magazine apparent and helps the reader decide whether to buy this issue off of the vendor or not.