Discuss how media language in the Big Issues represents homelessness through the front cover of issue number 1273

Discuss how media language in the Big Issues represents homelessness through the front cover of issue number 1273

The Big Issues aims are to be non-judgmental, inclusive and vendor central. The Big Issue is a magazine where the vendors are people who are homeless and haven't got sufficient income if any at all. The strap line of the big issue is a help up not a handout. The vendors would buy the magazines for 50p and sell them for £2.50, selling around 10 a day (on a good day) so they would make around £20 a day. They have to wake up early and try and get people to buy their magazines so that they can make money to go and buy food. Stereotypically people can think that the money they make they will go and buy drugs or alcohol.

I think that homelessness as a social group has a very strong stereotype of being people who have no money and don't try hard to fix issues that they have going on in their life. They often get compared to 'CHAV's ' which stands for 'Council housed and violent' which is a very strong view of homeless people as a whole.They get looked down upon by all the social groups and these social groups could have the view that they have worked for their money and the homeless are just trying to feed of their hard earned money. The Big Issue is one of the main counter stereo types for homeless people because these people are going out early to go and sell magazines. 'A Street cat named Bob' is a story about a homeless man who works as a Big Issue vendor and you see how much effort he goes through to get income to help and feed his cat. This for me is what stopped the stereotypical thoughts of homeless people as you get a true insight into what life is like for homeless people. Mainstream media has a stereotypical and counter stereotypical view of homeless people. Charities such as Shelter promote their lives as being terrible and needing help from other people and the media such as news shows people hoping them during times such as winter.  Shelter and other charities have pictures of young children on their website saying things like ‘no child should be alone at Christmas’. By using children and the worst examples of homeless they almost guilt you into wanting to help them and give the charity money to help. Newspapers such as The Sun have articles about homeless people and they are showing the good in homeless people. For example on the 10th November 2017 there was an article about 'homeless man granted place in cambridge University'. Stories like these you can see that some homeless people really are trying to do good things with their lives. The Sun also have articles like 'Police were warned homeless man who slaughtered family who took him in had made chilling Facebook death threats but failed to protect his victims.' this is an extreme version of how different The Sun's views are of the homeless. Shildrick and MacDonald in 2007 suggested that the poor and homeless are undeserving of sympathy from people of higher status or who aren't poor. 

Press in the form of celebrities give a good view of homelessness. Paolo Nuttini grew up in Paisley which is the poorest place in Scotland, he has managed to turn into a famous singer. This is counter stereotyping homeless people because he has managed to turn his life around and is attempting to bring awareness to areas that need the most help.

Street cat named Bob' was the front cover of issue number 1273, it was inspired by the Japanese culture. The front cover uses saturated colours such as pink which coincides with the Japanese culture. Pink is seen as a happy and uplifting colour so they used pink on the magazine to try and show homelessness in a more happier sense than most other magazines. Bob is positioned centrally on the cover, he is looking formal because Bob is wearing clothes but makes it informal as well because he is wearing scruffy clothes. It is a direct informal and informal mode of dress because Bob is looking directly at the reader of the magazine. By having Bob on the front cover, it almost shows that Bob is the start of counter stereotyping how homelessness is perceived to be, making it seem more happy and not as bad.  The top left corner of the magazine has the Big Issue's logo and strap line to remember the main reason behind the actual magazine- 'a hand up not a hand out'. Sans serif font is used centrally on the page to create an uplifting atmosphere and modern almost to say there is a new modern stereotype to homelessness. The link to the Japanese culture is the fact the billboards in the back of the page are in Japanese and have anime and Godzilla on the page. 

Social, political and cultural factors all affect the way homelessness is represented as. A street cat named Bob is a great way of perceiving the drug and alcohol abuse links to homelessness. James (Bobs owner) was a heroin addict and he describes his drug use as a 'escape from reality', the reality of being homeless. 41% of homeless people admitted to using or recovering from drug use. The one show interviewed James on the 24^th October 2016 after the movie premiered and he had been homeless for 10 years and that he believes that homelessness has doubled since 2010 because homeless people are all seen as the same. When really to battle homelessness they all need to not be put in the same boat because some of them are homeless because they have just fought in the war, bad breakups and drugs or alcohol etc. If they target each problem individually then homelessness can be reduced.