Magazines: The Big Issue + set texts Flashcards
1
Q
outline The Big Issue
A
- Launched in 1991
- Aims to transform the lives of London’s homeless
- TBI is niche (outside mainstream)
- Exists as a social business to use profits to help people affected by poverty
2
Q
outline the social context behind TBI
A
- the philosophy of self-help is encapsulated in the strapline found in every edition’s front cover (‘a hand up, not a handout’)
- TBI is rooted in campaigning, but also needs to appeal to as wide an audience as possible in order to support its vendors
2
Q
outline the political context behind TBI
A
- it strongly advocates for social change – primarily around homelessness of which it highlights + alleviates it and poverty in general
- TBI offers a platform + deliberately celebrates the homelesses’ individuality + achievements, in hopes of challenging + shaping public perception
- TBI engages with current affairs, and so reflects political contexts - esp political debates around homelessness
3
Q
outline the cultural context behind TBI
A
- TBI covers include cultural references whilst covering the important issue of the housing crisis
4
Q
outline the typical TBI reader
A
- university educated
- middle class
- interested in politics, art, culture
- limited disposable income
- wants to make a difference in society
- TBI must tailor their front cover + content to attract this reader
5
Q
how does TBI help the poor
A
- supports vendors to achieve social, health, housing, education, financial inclusion
- provides employment for the homeless (as vendors)
- offers direct support to help escape poverty – though campaigns
6
Q
outline TBIs manifesto
A
- aims to prevent poverty before it starts
- ‘prevention over cure’
- provides routes out of poverty by investing in people’s lives early on
- social justice for all
7
Q
last year TBI provided ___ vendors with access to health + wellbeing support
A
- last year TBI provided 36,000 (almost 40K) vendors with access to health + wellbeing support
8
Q
how does TBI differ to mainstream magazines
A
- representation: in mainstream, reps tend to support the dominant social group (media owners (MC)) to reinforce the status quo
- TBI aims to represent the underrepresented/ marginalised and provide a platform for social issues
9
Q
define realism
A
- realism = the set of conventions by which audiences accept a representation as ‘realistic to real life
9
Q
what are 3 types of realism
A
- factual realism = whether what is portrayed is factually accurate/ real
- social realism = whether what is portrayed is what the audience expects based on their social norms
- narrative realism = whether the events within a story are well explained + consistent
9
Q
outline the early days of print publications + celeb culture
A
- from 1900, publications like The Tatler covered highs society events – providing readers with a glance into the lives of the elite
- they showcased the lavish lives of the British aristocracy
- with time, the publications progressed and began to print personal profiles, interviews, candid shots of famous people day to day
- this created a sense of voyeurism for readers
10
Q
outline the celebrity culture in the digital age
A
- the key values that define celeb culture today originated from print publications + have become embedded in our collective consciousness, shaping the way we consume and interpret celeb culture
- readership is fuelled by para-social relationships w/ celebrities + audiences idolisation of them
- celeb culture is a major influence on the content of TBI - covers expect the audience to recognise + understand the cultural role of these 2 figures w/o explanation
11
Q
name media language conventions of magazine
A
- composition/ layout - how elements are organised
- typography - style/ size of font
- modes of address/language - high/low-level lexis
- shot types + angles
- strapline - phrases at top/ bottom of page
- puff
- logo
- masthead
- tagline/ slogan - catchy phrase that represents brand
- feature article
- central image
- colour palette
- rule of thirds: when a page is divided into 3 sections
- intertextuality
- props
- sell line
12
Q
outline 2 statistics about The Big Issue’s sales
A
- Is published in 25 languages with a readership of 4.6 million per year
- Each year, vendors sell 4 million magazines
13
Q
(Native American ST) outline the intertextuality in relation to Martin Scorsese
A
- an iconic Hollywood director
- recognisable to fans of cinema (cine-literate)
- multi award winner
- also made: wolf of wall street, shutter island, Goodfellas
14
Q
(Native American ST) outline the visual of this cover
A
- grey composited images of Geoffrey + Scorsese
- Geoffrey: fist in the air, positioned in front of the colours of the Osage nation
- ‘Scorsese’ + ‘Standing Bear’ in all capitalised, red, bold font
- ‘and an injustice that lives on’; bold, white, capitalised, sans serif
- ‘inside big screen epic killers of the flower moon’; all caps, sans serifed, KOTFM in bold, towards bottom of cover
15
Q
(Native American ST) outline the Killers of the Flower Moon
A
- an American epic western crime drama film
- book to film adaptation - book was a bestseller - pre existing audience
- story follows a series of murders of Osage members after oil was discovered on their land
- TBI is promoting a story representing the underrepresented - meeting their remit
- ‘an overlooked piece of history is finally being acknowledged’
16
Q
(Native American ST) outline the intertextuality in relation to Standing Bear
A
- Geoffrey Standing Bear is the Chief of the Osage Nation
- TBI is representing NAs + their marginalisation
- hes wearing the traditional wear of his tribe
- he works to protect + enhance Osage culture/ language/ land
- was Oklahoman of the Year in 2017
17
Q
(Native American ST) outline the audience reaction to this TBI cover
A
- the culturally literate readers of TBI may have read KOTFM book
- Native Americans may remind readers of the link to the homeless as they too are marginalised + misrepresented in western society
- cine-literate fans of TBI would recognise Scorsese
- cover relies on TBI’s intertextual knowledge of NAs + Scorsese
- cover reflects TBI’s ideology to represent their audience’s high cultural capital
18
Q
(Carry On ST) outline the visual of this cover
A
- page split between red and blue - colours of Labour + Cons
- ‘A cross between a Carry On film and being on the titanic’ - in center, bold, sans serif, white letter
- Rishi Sunak (right) and Keir Starmer (Left) as bobble heads - expressions are caught off guard - reflect political leaning
- between the politicians is a TBI homeless vendor - brings the focus back to homelessness; holding voting card?, hes looking scornally at Sunak
- ‘Our man Will Payne inside Tory and Labour conferences as parties ready for election’
19
Q
(Carry On ST) outline the intertextual context of Carry On films
A
- a popular film franchise from 1950s-90s
- British comedy traditional of ‘music hall’ and ‘bawdy seaside postcards’
- compromised 31 films - well received by Britain
- had a repeated cast
- the films tackled areas such as gender, sexuality, home life
20
Q
Killers of the Flower Moon grossed _ globally + received critical acclaim + nominated for _ academy awards
A
- Killers of the Flower Moon grossed $157M globally + received critical acclaim + nominated for 10 academy awards
21
Q
outline the conventionality of TBI’s media language on front cover
A
- TBI used to be unusual in its media lang, as the front cover didn’t follow a house style as faithfully as more mainstream magazines
- layout varied based on editions; masthead changed positions, number of cover images varied, typography changed dramatically between sans serif and serifed
22
Q
outline the redesign of TBI
A
- since their redesign in 2021, TBI has adopted a more consistent style in terms of layout, with the masthead split between the top + bottom + spread across the width of the page
- cover lines are still limited in number + usually in bold, sans-serif capitals to connote emphasis + campaigning style
- background + masthead colours vary issue to issue - tends to be bright, saturated colours - this links to the need for street selling, from which buyers need to be able to spot editions from a distance
23
Q
outline genres and magazines
A
- magazines are categorised by audience as much as by genre
- e.g. while there are clear genres of magazines - e.g. consumer, trade journals - consumer mags are often displayed by audience gender - e.g. ‘women’s weeklies’ - rather than by genre
24
Q
outline TBI’s distribution method
A
- TBI is unusual in being defined by its distribution method - street sales by vendors
- thus, although it shares some content + style conventions of mainstream/ political/ entertainment mags, its free to challenge these + doesn’t rely on being recognisable on retailers’ shelves
25
Q
outline media language + technology in magazines
A
- print technology offers the opportunity for the front cover to use visual impact to sell the mag
- a print cover is generally simpler, less detailed + more coherent than a website home page - e.g. print’s clearly framed layout in which all the graphic design elements can be controlled
- this allows TBI to offer strikingly different designs
- covers are dominated by the image
25
Q
outline intertextuality in magazines
A
- TBI front covers often have intertextual links which connote wit, sophistication, a shared experience with a culturally aware audience + to flatter the audience - e.g. reference to Killers of the Flower Moon in Native American ST
25
Q
outline selection and combination in representation in TBI
A
- magazines select + combine to create representations that reflect their bran + set the appropriate tone for the magazine as a whole
- TBI is a brand with a mixed tone; its pitch to advertisers is that it offers ‘provocative, independent journalism’ and ‘high-profile exclusive interviews’ with celebrities
- the pitch also refers to TBIs representation; the magazine has ‘challenged and shaped public perceptions’ + ‘asserts change and action’
25
Q
outline realism/ constructing reality in magazines
A
- magazines are held to a lower standard of realism than newspapers, depending on their genre, but magazines such as TBI are governed by the professional ethics of journalism + aims to provide a truthful portrait of the world
- TBI has a unique perspective, by often assuming the point of view of the homeless, which arguably offers more realism to its representations
26
Q
outline multiculturalism in TBI
A
- multiculturalism has influenced the representation of figures on TBI covers - e.g. the focus on Native Americans in ST
- liberal news sources of the 1960s would also have covered EM figures sympathetically, but from a far whiter perspective
26
Q
outline the pitch of TBI
A
- TBI’s pitch to advertisers is that it offers ‘provocative, independent journalism’ and ‘high-profile exclusive interviews’ with celebrities
- the pitch also refers to TBIs representation; the magazine has ‘challenged and shaped public perceptions’ + ‘asserts change and action’
26
Q
outline stereotyping in magazines
A
- front covers of mags need to communicate messages briefly so often resort to stereotyping
- TBI is less likely to need to use this tactic due to the way its sold, but may need to resort to it occasionally
- the sell line on TBI (‘a hand up, not a hand out’) replaces the negative stereotypes of the ‘handout’ (patronising charity/ welfare) with a positive stereotype of the ‘hand up’, suggesting aspiration + achievement
27
Q
outline TBI’s representation of under-represented/ mis-represented homeless people
A
- the representation of homeless people + the issue of street living in TBI is a deliberate attempt to remedy a systematic under-representation in mainstream media
- TBI encourages writing by homeless people to provide a rare example of self-representation of this group, which acts to correct misrepresentations
- it also juxtaposes these representations with mainstream representations of celebs from the world of entertainment
- this juxtaposition further counters the representation of the homeless as ‘outsiders’ who lack dignity + self-respect by associating them with more culturally central + successful people
28
Q
outline TBI’s representation of under-represented/ mis-represented in terms of gender + race
A
- of the last 40 editions in 2022, it found that 18 editions feature men only on the cover, and 9 feature women only
- people of colour feature exclusively in 4 of the covers + 2x together with white people
- the proportion of white people featured is slightly more than that in the population as a whole, so the under-representation of people of colour isn’t as severe as that of women
28
Q
outline representation + audience response and contexts
A
- TBI magazine can assume some empathy with homelessness on the part of its audience
- TBI readers are probably more likely to be LW, which is reflected in the tone of the magazine
- this means more RW readers might take exception to the representations + the magazine is less likely to find agreement among the politically apathetic
