The big issue

A hand up, not a hand down

 https://www.bigissue.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLIAe6TzyCWiN
QA1nfGN9ww

The Big Issue is a magazine sold by the homeless on the

streets to help them make money and begin to make a

What is it? living

It is written by professional journalists
It can be found in many cities across the world
 It was founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in
September 1991 as a response to the growing number
of homeless people on Londons streets
The vendors buy their own magazines for 1.20 and sell
them off for 2.50, meaning they are not begging

The foundation, which was created in 1995, provides

The history services and referrals addressing issues such as
housing, health, finances, education, employment and
personal aspirations
They have 2000 vendors
 John Bird is the editor of the Big Issue and attended
Chelsea school of art and worked as a printer and lives
in London
He was born into an Irish slum where any money was
spent on cigarettes or in pubs and he was made
homeless at five for not paying rent
John Bird After being kicked out of a council flat for not paying
rent, he was sent to a Catholic orphanage for three
years and once he came out of there, he began stealing,
begging and became a butchers boy
After the success of the big issue, he became a baron in
2015
 Gordon Roddick studied at agricultural college in
Cirencester and now lives between Scotland and
Sussex
He found success when he helped found The Body Shop
Gordon Roddick with his wife Anita in 1976

He believes business is about the people involved and

benefitting people, not the numbers
 After a year of the business, the company was losing
25,000 a month
The company had grown too quickly so they had to get
rid of many members
At first the public bought the magazine for 50p and the
vendor bought the magazine for 10p. That was then
doubled to 20p and it was issued every fortnight rather
The success and than every month

agenda Now, 70 different editions are sold all over the world
and about 550,000 copies are sold a week
Due to the economy, it does not reduce the amount of
homeless people but it does benefit many homeless
people and help them begin to make a living, which is
their aim as they teach homeless people not to beg, but
to work and this gives them that opportunity
 The audience is young at heart, educated and loyal
Slightly more women than men read it
61% of the readers are aged between 18 and 39
Target audience 48% are high income earners
34% are professionals or managers
66% have a university degree or diploma
 You can buy a copy from a vendor on the streets
How to get a You can subscribe to the magazine meaning every
week you will get a hard copy delivered to you for just
copy 32.50 for three months
 In the UK, homelessness is a rising issue. There are
complaints of the government and local authorities either:

Portraying all homeless as criminals giving a negative view

upon them

Not giving the homeless any help and looking down on

them
Economic & Not giving the homeless effective help and doing the bare
political context of minimum

homelessness in Resorting to controversial ways of keeping the problem out

of sight to the public rather than sorting it
the UK
http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2016/01/28/growing-
homeless-crisis-politicians-don-t-talk-about

https://crisis.org.uk/media/236823/homelessness_monitor
_england_2017.pdf
 Sky showed homelessness to be associated with criminals and is a dark
and serious issue. They use a homeless man to tell his story about the
rough life of living on the streets but never show his face. This gives the
idea that he has to perform criminal acts to be able to gain some sort of
positive so he wouldnt want people to see who he really is. They use
statistics such as the fact that most homeless people die at the age of 47
to show urgency to the situation
The BBC use a young woman's personal story on how she became
How homeless due to her abusive relationship and her job. She states how
the local authorities did not take her seriously and she didnt gain any
homelessness is help and had to get herself out of the dangerous situation. This raises
awareness and brings light to the hidden subject through the blame of
portrayed in the the councils. It also gives hope as the woman is now working and
making a living for herself and most importantly she is happy. The fact

media they show her face gives the audience a personal connection to her
Al Jazeera created a short awareness video which focuses on the fact
local authorities are not doing their job properly and are not doing
enough to help so it is left to volunteers. It focuses on the political side
and is critical of Britain and the large wealth divide. It states how
councils are overwhelmed by the amount of homeless people.
Immigrants are shown and state how they could be sent to the suburbs
because London is for the rich
 72% of Big Issue readers are ABC1
43% of readers are AB
Magazines Most buyers are between the ages of 15-25 and 35-45
audience Due to the accessibility online, the younger generation
can access the big issue there
 Advertisements are often aimed towards the more
wealthy due to the socio-economic group being ABC1
Advertising in the magazine aligns your brand with a
Advertising trusted, heritage brand, and offers unique access to a
desirable audience. Three out of four Big Issue readers
buy three magazines a month.
Iconic covers
 Cover line

Masthead

Top third

Cover line
Cover line

Middle third

Main cover line

Bottom third

Date line
Intertextuality: the process of
creating references to any kind
of media text via another media text Abba lyrics
e.g. From music joking about
the serious
matter of
leaving the
EU

Intertextuality
Talent show

Idea that
they should
Abba lyrics from have their
the 1970s/1980s own talent
highlighting the
comical view
Many parts or facts from Johnny Depps career are made in this
cover to describe him, showing intertextuality from film

Masthead

Linking to his character of the Mad Hatter

Price
Linking to Johnny Depp's
character of Captain Jack
Sparrow in Pirates of the
Caribbean
Linking to his character of Rochester

His wealth due to his fame in film

Where he played Edward Scissorhands

Linking to the idea of stealing

Main
someone's thunder fame wise due to
cover line
his success in film