A Level MEDIA – Component 2

Case Study – The Big Issue

Revision Booklet

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Edition: ‘25th Anniversary’ Publication: October 17-23 2016

A Level Component 2: Investigating Media Industries and Audiences

Focus areas:Media LanguageAudiences Media ContextsRepresentationMedia Industries

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PRODUCT CONTEXT

• Weekly magazine

• Publisher – Dennis and The Big Issue Ltd.

• Genre – Independent/Current Affairs/Entertainment/Street magazine

• First published – 1991

• Creators – John Bird and Gordon Roddick

• Current cover price - £2.50

• Current circulation – 82,000

• Distribution method – “Since the magazine was founded, we have been in partnership with the people who sell it. Vendors buy The Big Issue for £1.25 and sell it for £2.50. Each seller is a micro-entrepreneur who is working, not begging” https://www.bigissue.com/latest/how-much-does-the-big-issue-cost/

The magazine is one part of The Big Issue Ltd alongside:

The Big Issue Foundation – an independently funded charity which provides support and guidance for vendors in areas such as training, education, health and housing

Big Issue Invest – helps to finance sustainable social enterprises, charities and a social trading platform

The Big Issue Shop – buyers purchasing eco-friendly products, or products from organisations which use profits to support social enterprises or charitable causes

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Overview

Title The Big IssueTypical topics / subject matter

Types of product advertised (with specific examples of brands)

What can we tell about the magazine and the magazine’s target audience from the magazine’s content?

What can we tell about the magazine / magazine’s audience from the advertising?

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Representation in the adverts

Consider the concept of Representation in the featured adverts

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Who do you think the adverts are aimed at?

What might this tell us about the audience for The Big Issue?

Generally, how are people represented across the adverts?

How does this fit in with the genre of the magazine?

How might these adverts represent contemporary issues?

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Media Language and Representation in the main article

Article: ‘Moving On’Elements of media language

Analysis of meaning and representation (including specific examples):

Layout and DesignPositioning of headline, pull quotes/sidebars, columns, imagesFont size, type, colour etc.

Images/photographs (shot type, angle, focus)

Mise-en-scene – colour, lighting, location,costume/dress as appropriate

Anchorage of images and text

Mode of address

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(direct/indirect; formal/informal)

Specific devices e.g. emotive language,rhetorical questions, hyperbole, use of fact/statisticsSubject-specific lexis

What narrative has been established?

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Consider how the same elements can be applied to the other articles/features (look at the hard copies or Moodle resources):

Contents Bakery article

Editorial ‘My Pitch’

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‘Letter to My Younger Self’

Identity – applying David Gauntlett’s theory

Quote: The mass media has become more liberal in terms of sex and gender issues, and considerably more challenging to traditional standards (Gauntlett)

Consider how this quote might apply to the article on the artist, Grayson Perry. Why might such an artist feature in the magazine?

How might we apply Gauntlett’s theory in the wider context of ‘challenging traditional standards’ with regards to other articles and features in the set edition?

Representation of Stereotypes (Hall)

How far does The Big Issue magazine confront and challenge the media notion of constructing stereotypes? Does the magazine challenge any notion of racial or gender stereotypes?

Representation of Issues

Consider how the magazine represents the issue of homelessness and the stigma that is often attached to it? How can it be seen to respond to the under-representation and misrepresentation of homeless people?

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Binary Opposition (Structuralism – Claude Levi Strauss)

The magazine’s tagline, ‘a hand up not a handout’ sets up a series of binary oppositions, most notably between charity and social enterprise, begging and working, dependency and independence. This is fundamental to the magazine’s ideology and the work it does in transforming the lives of the street vendors who sell the magazine and changing public perceptions of homelessness

Cultivation Theory (George Gerbner)

The idea that repeated patterns of representation cultivates particular attitudes and beliefs in the audience

How might we apply Gerbner’s theory to The Big Issue magazine and to the ‘cultivation’ of attitudes and beliefs which might apply to the issue of homelessness? Is the magazine attempting their own version of ‘cultivation’?

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Brand Identity, Ideology and Manifesto

These are the magazines own values and ideologies. They make up its branding. How it wants other to see it.

‘Vendor-centric’ – our charity work is led by the hopes and aspirations of Big Issue vendors

‘Inclusive’ – social and financial inclusion at the heart of our philosophy

‘Non-judgmental’ – we work with anyone who is prepared to engage with self-help

This is the organisation’s manifesto:

WE BELIEVE in a hand up, not a handout…Which is why our sellers BUY every copy of the magazine for £1.25 and sell it for £2.50

WE BELIEVE in trade, not aid…Which is why we ask you to ALWAYS take your copy of the magazine. Our sellers are working and need your custom

WE BELIEVE poverty is indiscriminate…Which is why we provide ANYONE whose life is blighted by poverty with the opportunity to earn a LEGITIMATE income

WE BELIEVE in the right to citizenship…Which is why The Big Issue Foundation, our charitable arm, helps sellers tackle social and financial exclusion

WE BELIVE in prevention…Which is why Big Issue Invest offers backing and investments to social enterprises, charities and businesses which deliver social value to communities.

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Go through ALL the set pages of The Big Issue magazine and make a list of evidence that reflects or demonstrates these brand values, ideologies and links to its manifesto.

Brand Value / Ideology Evidence from The Big Issue pagesHopes and aspirations

Inclusivity

Non-judgmental approach

‘Hand up, not a handout’

‘Trade, not aid’

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Indiscriminate poverty

The Right to Citizenship

Prevention

Activity

Go onto The Big Issue website and write down five examples from the website that also reflect this ‘brand identity’.

https://www.bigissue.com/

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Industry

Activity

Watch the video narrated by co-founder, John Bird, ‘What is the Big Issue’. How might the quote ‘a publishing revolution’ apply to the magazine? Use the notes made in the lesson while watching the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYO-TeBzYWY)

Distribution

Consider the Big Issue’s model of distribution – the vendor’s buy the magazine for half the cover price, in order to sell on the street – and how this might be seen as ‘empowering’ people?

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KEY MEDIA TERMS TO CONSIDER FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

AUDIENCE – target, global, positioning, categorising, profile, Reception Analysis (Preferred, Negotiated, Oppositional), challenging perceptions of the homeless

NICHE or MAINSTREAM MARKET – could the magazine be seen as appealing to both markets?

IDEOLOGY – linked to representation and of The Big Issue Ltd

SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS – how might the company be using digital technology to appeal to a wider audience and represent their ideology?

DEMOGRAPHICS – link to Audience – which socio-economic category might the magazine appeal to?

PSYCHOGRAPHICS – link to Audience – which category or categories of audience might be best applied to the magazine and its ideology?

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