Print Media-The Big Issue - Part 1 and Part 2

Print Media-The Big Issue

Upper class 

• Mainly represented through the coverage of the monarchy, 

• Seen as well bred and cultured, 

• Represented through their accents, estates, and a taste for shooting and hunting, 

• Usually represented in costume and period drama.

Nairn (1988) – Monarchy

• “Royal Family” concept = niceness, decency, ordinariness, 

• Royal family can be deemed to be “like us” but “not like us” – the queen seen as ordinary working mother doing extraordinary things, 

Middle class (stereotypes)

•Presented as educated and successful as well as able to cope with problems,
•Over represented in the media due to their lifestyle
•Representation fits in with the hegemonic ideology of the dominant class in society,
•Representation justifies the existing class structure and inequalities by suggesting people need to become more competent and successful in order to cope with life. 

Representations of poverty and underclass

• Portrayal usually negative and stereotypical, 

• Portrayed in the form of statistics in news bulletin such as figures of unemployment, 

• Recent media interest in the labelling of the poor such as “chavs” which according to Shildrick and MacDonald (2007) suggest that the poor are undeserving of sympathy.

• Hayward and Yar (2006) – the term "chav" is used as an amusing term of abuse for young poor people.

Media language: how the media through their forms, codes, conventions and techniques communicate meanings.

Colour, type of shot, angle, focus, depth of field, mise-en-scene, body language, props, location, lighting, realism?Narrative?Use of text, font design/size, layout, mode of address.

Media representations: how the media portray events, issues, individual and social groups

 Anchorage is when a piece of media uses another piece of media to reduce the amount of connotations in the first, therefore allowing the audience to interpret it much more easily. For instance, in a newspaper, pictures are accompanied by a caption that allows us to understand what the picture is showing us.

Task 1:

Colour - Saturated yellow - symbolic of energy & grey.

Type of shot- Mid-shot - emphasises female sexuality and female form.

Angle- Low angle.

Focus- Bikini and body glow (sharpness emphasises the tone of her body).

Depth of field - sharply focused on the main subject (nicely toned body).

Mise-en-scene - Puffing her chest to make herself look good. Bright Bikini.

Body language - Coverline which is rhetoric. Promoting protein.

Props - 

Location - Left third of  the screen.

Lighting - Evenly lit, glowing body form, torso is the main focus point (biggest glow).

Realism - Photoshopped to have smoother, glowing skin. Face is very contoured. Flattering in all the right places. Hourglass shape. Thin waist. Thigh gaps (not very realistic).

Narrative - Woman who takes the protein supplement to get this sort of 'beach body'.

Use of text - Rhetoric question as coverline used as a way to engage the viewer.Emphasis of beauty form.

Font design/size - Sans which makes it serous and sophisticated, and the size makes it very bold in the eyes of the viewer.Upper case - shouting at the audience.

Layout-Contrasting colours. Left third.

Mode of address - Direct mode of address, almost symbolic of how not being beach ready can be an intimidating thing .

Representation - the goals of how a woman should look.

Theme/messages - That by taking this protein supplement, you will look like this.

Task 2:

The vendors come from a variety of backgrounds and face the myriad of problems associated with poverty and inequality. The mission is to dismantle poverty by creating opportunity, through self-help, social trading and business solutions. It gives people in poverty an opportunity to work and earn money for themselves.The vendor buys each copy of the magazine for £1.25, and they sell it for £2.50, with 50% of the sale price going to the vendor. The tagline is "A hand up, not a handout.", meaning they do not give them money, but they give them a job so they can earn a living for themselves, to try and help raise them out of poverty.

The Romanian migrant group is represented as scroungers, beggars and thieves of the state, as the come to Britain to gin money. Form the text, it explains that they came to England to beg, earning £100 a day by targeting Muslim groups as well as Arabs, as they are most willing to give money due to religious reasons. The state decided to deport them back to Romania, and paid for all of their expenses with tax-payers money to send them back. When the Telegraph contacted them when they got back to Romania and told the press they were planning on coming back to England to beg and send the money back home to their families. This negatively suggests that Romanian unskilled workers are moving to England to beg, and removing money from the British economy to send back to Romania, therefore boosting their economy and weakening the British economy.

Homeless migrants are portrayed as less deserving than the homeless people who are 'native to Britain', as they come to Britain and are perceived to contribute nothing to society. Homeless migrants are perceived to be more 'underserving of sympathy' as Shildrick and MacDonald said, purely for the fact they they have moved from another country to try and beg, whereas there are British citizens that have worked their whole life and have found themselves in a very unfortunate situation. The examples given are Ex-army people living in the Stratford Centre and relying on the soup Kitchens, and Michael, a chauffeur who attended the Olympics a few years prior, now living on the streets and in poverty.  It does however refer to the anti-social behaviour of these homeless people in the grooming gangs, the fights breaking out with glass bottles in this Centre, drug addiction, alcoholism, and mental health problems, all hosted in Stratford Centre. The paper is trying to portray how homelessness is a very negative thing, as it leads to these criminal activities taking place in society. The reference to anti-social behaviour is intended to show how they are 'undeserving of help' but can also make people feel sympathetic towards them, as people want to end this suffering and crime that has come from homelessness. 

In this Left-Wing newspaper, it tries to portray the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, as wanting to 'cut down the number of veterans living poverty' as well as with 'the mental and physical scars of war'. The newspaper states that 6% of people in London are homeless veterans. It portrays the veterans as being victims and deserving of sympathy (counter to Shildrick and MacDonald).

Notes
Homes for Heroes-
Daily express - right wing
anti-soldiers being homeless
1/10 ex servicemen
cast aside and left to rot
no support or net to catch them after leaving
looking for accommodation and jobs
younger guys 5-10 years, cannot afford to buy
homelessness caused by ptsd
moving fem job to job - can't find their feet -
relationship breakdown, drugs, alcohol - homeless
no home, no money for food- relying on benefits - going to job centres to live
2012 vauk law changed - mr shaftsbury head of cons - changed wording of laws
high priority and preference in benefits
need help from authorities and councils
housing association are not following the wording of the law
needs to be a change of law stating councils should help veterans - no, must

The Daily Express, a right wing newspaper reported on the high levels of ex-army personnel struggling to get on the housing ladder, or to even rent a home. 1 in 10 homeless people are ex-servicemen, and the Homes for Heroes group views them to have been 'cast aside and left to rot'. They perceive there to be 'no support or net to catch them after leaving' the army. One example specifically given was younger soldiers who may have served for 5 to 10 years, not being able to afford to buy their own homes, as the wages were too low to save up to buy a home in the future, and this is leaving them in a terrible position after leaving the army. There are high numbers of ex-servicemen looking for accommodation, and without being able to find a steady job that they are happy and comfortable with, they are thus unable to maintain the payments for a home and are then left homeless. Homelessness for ex-servicemen is caused by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which causes them to turn to drugs, alcoholism and relationship breakups. Because they have no jobs, and no money for food, they rely on the benefits system to live, and therefore have to go to the job centre to collect their cheques, just to get by. there is not the correct legislation in place to give ex-servicemen priority and help from the council in order to get accommodation. The VAUK (Veterans Association UK) campaign managed to in 2012 bring to attention the incorrect wording of an act which meant that the local authorities were able to get away with not providing any help or assistance to veterans in finding housing, and managed to get the wording changed so that they receive help. This is however still no the case, and they are calling for a new law to be made so that councils 'MUST' provide housing, rather than 'SHOULD' help them. They believe that veterans should have high priority and preference in benefits and housing.

Social conditions - Things that happen in society overall

Social conditions veterans and homelessness
+ PTSD.
+ Alcohol.
+ Drugs - from of escape.
+ Unemployment.
+ Marriages and relationships are breaking down - divorce rates are breaking down. (divorce rates in general are 43%)
+ Have to wait two years for mental health support.
+ Waiting for benefits.

Deserving poor -
-Veterans
-Disabilities
-Addicts

Undeserving poor-
-Wasters
-Keep having kids
-Over eaters
-Work shy-lazy
-Ex criminals (murderers, rapists, paedophiles)
-Foreign beggars
-Asylum seekers
-Refugees

media language: how the media through their forms, codes, conventions and techniques communicate meanings.

media representations: how the media portray events, issues, individual and social groups.

The Big Issue chose to highlight this issue, as it was published in November, which is a significant month of the year as it plays host to one of the most important days in out year, as well as history; Armistice Day (Remembrance Day). It chose specifically to talk about this topic in the November issue, as on the 11th November, it is important to think of all the people that sacrificed their lives for all of societies rights. if it wasn't for them, then we would not be here now, and that is important for us to remember and think about. Our freedoms came at a cost to them, both mentally, and physically, and now stye are left alone, without support, and are consequently living on the streets. It makes people more sympathetic and aware of all of the people who are living on the streets that we may be forgetting about. It makes the reader think about being more helpful towards those who are in need, and deserving of help. The anonymity is key on this cover, as it says that veterans may look like average people (specifically homeless), and therefore people should think about helping them more.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Homelessness among the veterans community is getting worse by the month. The youngest we have dealt with is an 18-year-old and the oldest is 97. And we helped people of every age in between.”

The Ministry of Defence said: “We provide extensive help to veterans and their families, including funding the Veterans’ Gateway.

“The Government is spending more than £1billion to prevent homelessness and rough sleeping.”

Hero Craig Mealing, 42, completed tours of Afghanistan, Iraq, Northern Ireland, Kosovo and Bosnia with the Rifles.

But he was left homeless for two months in 2016 ­after his long-term relationship ­buckled under the strain of his PTSD and he turned to alcohol.

Windsor Homeless Project, tonight told the Sunday People: “There are 12 to15 rough sleepers on the streets of Windsor and we’ve got 50 to 60 on our books.

“Typically, two in ten at any one time will be former military."

If veterans’ charities are right there could be more than 13,000 war heroes living on Britain’s streets.

Charity bosses say the problem has been made worse by cuts to the armed forces, which has led to almost 30,000 troops losing their jobs since 2010.

“We estimate 13,000 but we ­believe it’s an ­accurate figure from what our outreach teams are seeing.

“From our ­experience, the problem of homeless veterans has never been greater. I’d say 13,000 is a minimum – it could be far higher.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Most media studies on poverty point in the direction of a recurring observation that usually the poor are presented in one of two contrasting frames: the ‘deserving poor’ and the ‘undeserving poor’.

•While the frame of deserving poor employs a sympathetic treatment of the poor, the frame of the undeserving poor is built upon the rhetoric of deficiency in individuals who are portrayed as a burden on the taxpayer due to their dependency on welfare policies

•(see also, scroungerphobia, Golding & Middleton, 1982)

New Theory - Gerbner theory (cultivation theory)    

Theory: Cultivation theory states that high frequency viewers of television are more susceptible to media messages and the belief that they are real and valid. Heavy viewers are exposed to more violence and therefore are effected by the Mean World Syndrome, the belief that the world is a far worse and dangerous place then it actually is. According to the theory heavy viewing of television is creating a homogeneous and fearful populace, however so many studies have been done in this area that really no one knows how or even if violence on TV or in film negatively or positively affects its audience.

Now cultivation theory has taken on a more general definition in regards to mass media. It now extends to encompass the idea that television colours our perception of the world. For example; if someone stays inside and watch news about crime all day, they might be inclined to believe that the crime rate is far higher than it actually is and they might easily become the victim of a crime. Or in another sense heavy viewership of any media   can perpetuate stereotypes both positive and negative. It really comes down to the question of to what extent does reality shape TV and vice versa.

HOW is this relevant to the BIG Issue?

•Consider whether society is being influenced by media on their perception of the homeless as scroungers/benefits cheats

•

•Consider whether the negative associations of poverty/homelessness have influenced audiences to be less sympathetic i.e. through stereotypes that the poor are

•

•Flawed

•Unworthy of sympathy

•

•Consider whether the  BIG ISSUE is unlike mainstream media representations of the poor.

Essay

23/11/2018

You will create an essay on isue 1332 of the Big issue: Still at War.  You will anaylyse the media language and media representations associated with the front cover.

As part of the essay you will need to discuss the social and politcal contexts which have lead to a rise in homelessness in overall and inparticular within the veteran community

You will also discuss how newspapers (right wing and Big Issue) vary in the way the represent homelessness.  As part of your arguments you are required to use Gerbners theory 

Essay analysis - In Bob we trust

Essay analysis - In Bob we trust

You will create an essay:You will analyse the media language and media representation of the xxx issue of the Big Issue “In Bob we trust” .   To what extent does the Magazine diverge from mainstream/rightwing depictions of the poor/homeless.  Why is the magazines remit an important factor in the way the magazine represents homelessness?  Discuss the social and political context of homelessness…Discuss the impact of homelessness in Britain today from your research.Word count minimum 750

The Big Issue is a magazine that is sold by homeless people, or people living in poverty who are trying to earn a living.The idea behind the Big Issue is highlighted in the motto/remit which is "a hand up, not a handout", meaning they want to help those who are living in poverty, but by making them work for it. The magazine is sold to the vendor for £1.25, and the vendor sells it for £2.50, meaning they make £1.25 profit from each magazine they sell.

The yellow and ginger colours are very energetic and symbolic of hope. The connotation of the blue sky is that it is a dark sky, but the denotations is that the blue is symbolic of piety, which is the quality of being religious of reverent. This links to the main cover line of "In Bob we trust" as it links to the phrase of 'in God we trust', making Bob look like he is a godly figure in which people can trust and almost rely on to help them see the light, as well as being a symbol of hope. It gives homeless people a sense of dignity, as homeless people are portrayed as being shabby and dirty, but Bob is homeless, and he has none of those attributes, therefore making homelessness look much more dignified. “In Bob we trust” may also have a link to the original phrase used on the American Dollar. This could be a reference to the incredible poverty within America, or how it is one of the richest countries in the world. 

The type of shot is a cross between a mid and wide shot so we can see all of the cat, but It has been taken very closely, like a portrait shot. We are able to see some of the context and surroundings of Bob, as a wide shot allows us to see all of person in front of us, and what is around and behind them. The context and surrounding of this photo is falling and setting snow, as well as some street lamps and what looks like a misty forest beyond all of that in the fog. The fog may be symbolic of the uncertainty that homeless people face beyond what they know of today. It is a metaphor of them knowing where they are today, but not where they will be tomorrow or in the future. The setting snow although it may be pretty to look at, represents the harsh environments in which the homeless have to live in, and Bob the Cat is no exception to those troubles.  

The angle is an eye-level shot with a slight low angle, which makes the photo look very formal, as he is giving a direct mode of address to the audience. This makes Bob look like a serious figure and not as an inferior person who homeless people are often perceived to be. The slight low angle makes Bob look like a tall beacon, a possible beacon of hope for the homeless, as well as a figure of God, and a source of inspiration. He looks like someone you would respect, and this is what they are trying to get across with using Bob as the cover of this magazine. They are trying to say that you respect Bob (the homeless cat), and all other homeless people deserve respect. He is centre stage and centre focus. There is no left third to cut some of him out or limit him. This has possibly been done as they do not want people to judge the magazine for its left third, they want people to buy it because it's what they think Is a good thing to do. These magazines will not be sold in shops, they are sold in person by real life homeless people, therefore there is no need for a left third. 

The focus of the photo is completely on Bob, as shown with the bold writing of ‘BOB’. Bob is the embodiment of homelessness, and he will make homelessness a point of discussion, which it often is not. He draws a different kind of attention on the issue of homelessness, and who it affects. 

The depth of field is not very sharp, as Bob is slightly merged with his environment and background. This may be a symbol of how he is part of that type of environment, and nothing will change that. He is not independent from the cold winter streets, he is part of it, and it is a part of him. 

The mise-en-scene is very limited, as the whole photo is set on him. Homelessness is for once the main focus point in society, which is what the Big Issue aims to do. It aims to help homeless people earn money for themselves and get back into a working routine, but it also puts homelessness at the forefront of the magazine.  

Bob the cat is sat in a very sophisticated and dignified position. Cats are often portrayed as rolling around or being silly, while this cat is an exception. Just like he is an exception to society in how he is homeless. Again, this comes back to the idea that he is like a religious figure, as God is an exceptional being, and Bob is an exceptional cat. His body language is neither aggressive, nor happy. He is just content. 

There are no props used at all in this cover, as it would take away from the meaning of the cover and add nothing to it. 

This photo was taken on the snowy streets, most likely in London as this is where Bob lives. It has been shot in the snowy streets of London because this issue came out in December, but it is also pointing out the harshness of the weather, whether it be beautiful or not, and the effect that it has on the people that live out in the cold winter streets of snowy London. 

The lighting of this photo is focussed on Bob. There are the streetlights in London that make things look bright, but there is darkness in the background, and this is a metaphor for the uncertainty of the future of not just Bob, but the homeless living in the capital's streets during the winter. 

There has been no photoshop, no CGI, no alterations to the cat. The photo possibly could have been taken on a green screen, however it is very realistic to the places that homeless people will be living in over the winter. It may paint a slightly brighter picture, than the harsh reality, as some homeless people live in worse conditions, however if they had set it in one of these locations, to would have lost the Christmas spirit intended, as well as scaring people away from buying it. Bob and the nice background puts a cheerful spin on the harsh reality of homelessness. 

The narrative of the photo is a cat (Bob), a homeless cat, that lives on the streets of London. The picture the magazine is painting of Bob is that he is like Godly figure in which people can rely upon. 

The text used is a sans font which is very sophisticated and stands out, especially with the use of the bright yellow colour. The yellow may have been chosen to link with the colour of the cat, as well as being a very energetic and cheerful colour. There is only three other cover line in this magazine, and that is on the right side of the cover. There is no left third to the magazine which has been done intentionally, as this magazine is not sold in stores, therefore the reader will not only see the left third. At the foot of the magazine, there is the main coverline of “Lessons from Britain’s favourite streetwise street cat” and “By James Bowen” underneath. This looks almost like it has been set out like a book, as thee is the title and the author of It. This is not seen as the normal layout of a magazine cover, and this is what makes it so unique and intriguing to the audience. This may have been set like this so that it is like James Bowen is telling the story of Bob.

This cover represents homelessness. This represents homeless people as dignified and not like the stereotype of being dirty, shabby and possible alcoholics or drug addicts. This portrays homeless people in a positive way, and deserving of help, which opposes Shildrick and MacDonald’s theory that the homeless are underserving of sympathy, as Bob is obviously deserving of help, as is anyone else living on the streets of London during the winter. Nearly 7,500 people sleep rough on the streets of London every year, which is an incredibly high number of people to be sleeping on the streets in London alone. The mainstream right wing does not have a sympathetic view on foreign homeless, especially Romanian homeless people, as they believe they are taking from the state and people who are native to the UK, and therefore more deserving of help. The right wing would however have a sympathetic view of this as Bob is an English cat and deserving of help. It is highly unlikely he has moved from another country to beg; therefore, he is more deserving of help.

The left wing would most likely see this as a point of sympathy, whether it was a cat, a person, or a foreign person. They believe in an egalitarian state, where everyone is equal, and bringing those at the top down to the same level as those at the bottom, so everyone is equal. 

In society today, 10 years after the financial crisis, we have seen a decrease in homelessness, but the percentages are still very high. There is the argument that the amount is very high due to for example, the increasing number of Romanian homeless people moving to England to beg, as well as the rise in immigration, meaning more people and less jobs, equaling to more people on the streets. This means there is high demand but low supply of jobs available to people. The homeless are often ignored as people cannot tell who is deserving or undeserving of help, and whether that help will be taken for granted. As the motto of the big issue says, they give a 'hand up, not a handout' meaning they want to improve the lives of the homeless, but to help them, they have to help themselves.