Elements of Representation within The Big Issue front cover

Selection and combination of issues, events, social groups and individuals; This
front cover uses complimentary issues, events, social groups and individuals which
perfectly reflect the magazines aims and ideas.
• Issue: Poverty and migration
• Events: Release of the new Paddington film
• Social Groups: Immigrants
• Individuals: Paddington Bear
Choices about representation; Within this front cover they have decided to idolize the
character of Paddington Bear, this is because he is know to have migrated from another
country to Britain; this highly reflects the aims of The Big Issue because, they produce
the magazine in order for those in poverty or homeless to have a source of income and
get of the streets. The magazine would want to idolize Paddington to encourage others
to help society because of his character being a part of the British film culture.
The positive and negative use of stereotypes; In this cover they only use a positive
stereotype; the feature article creates an atmosphere of hope and unity with the use of
the phrase “One of Us”. Moreover, the colour of the font is a yellowish-gold connotating
success, giving hope to those who are struggling financially.
Social groups who are under – or misrepresented; Within a lot of media migrants
tend to be represented in a negative form. However, The Big Issue doesn’t do this,
instead they idolize people who have gone through struggle within their lives. Although
Paddington may be a cartoon character, his story highly relates to others in poverty or
are homeless.
Impacts of industry contexts on choices producers make; A popular occurrence
within The Big Issues front covers is illustration, they use this a lot to lower production
costs. Also, if they were to create a realistic representation of Paddington, the cover
would have taken away the idea of being unique, and it would have taken away the
traditional image we tend to relate Paddington Bear with.
The use of a paper tag shaped puff also links to child refugees within WW1 & 2, it
reinforces the intertextuality in the front cover.
How the media, through representation, construct versions of reality; This unusual
point of view catches an audience’s eye, this because the older generation don’t tend to
idolize characters from books, so by creating this uplifting image it entices a reader to
look into the relations between Paddington and those in poverty in the UK. By exploring
migration it moves away from there always being a representation of the dominant group
within the media, focusing on what they believe are more important topics. Also, within
the puff a a sneak peak of the story ”The `vendor who went to Cambridge” we tend to
link Cambridge to things involving wealth and success so, by including a story about a
Big Issue vendor who has achieved something great, it shows the success of the
magazine itself. They also show deep respect by not referring to the vendor as
homeless, instead they describe him as a businessperson using the word ‘Vendor’ this is
to show that those in poverty have the same opportunities as others, they just tend to
word harder to get there.
How representations make claims about realism; Through the words “migrant” and
“British Icon” the magazine can construct a representation that migration is not a bad
thing, this contrasts to the dominant conservative ideologies that are often represented
within the media. The representation of Paddington being an “icon” creates a positives
outlook on his character and story.