The Big Issue : Assessment Task

On July 18^th, 2016, The Big Issue Ltd published its 1214^th magazine issue. This issue depicted a clear intertextual reference to the recent debut movie: ‘Ghost Busters’. The classic 1984 blockbuster was renewed and released just 3 days before this specific Big Issue cover was published, starring an ‘all-female’ cast. By clearly carrying out a Ghost Busters theme through this magazines’ front cover, it poses as advertisement for the movie, expanding its demographic to those that read The Big Issue. The movie starred Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones, which can be seen on multiple advertisement posters. However, The Big Issue has taken one of these posters involving the 4 actresses and continued to clearly advertise the movie but instead replaced the 4 actresses faces with 4 other significant women who were at the top of their game during the release of this issue. These 4 women are (from left to right) Hilary Clinton, Teresa May, Taylor Swift and Serena Williams. There’s a clear relation to the Ghostbusters movie due to the fact the mise en scene is kept the same as the characters are wearing the easily-recognisable costumes whilst holding laser guns. There’s a humorous theme to this Front Cover, the visual narrative has been heavily photo shopped, specifically within the four characters, their heads appear to be much larger in comparison to real life. The significance of their heads being larger may be to represent their power during the time of the issues release.

Hilary Clinton was significant at the time for worldwide readers, specifically within the US because she was competing against Donald Trump to win the US electoral campaign. Hilary Clinton is a democratic campaigner, she focused her platform on several issues, including expanding racial, LGBT, and women's rights, raising wages and ensuring equal pay for women, and improving healthcare. The fact that she is a left-wing activist, poses interest to the target audience of The Big Issue, this is because she will support similar campaigns to the labour party in Britain.

The Associated Press had declared Clinton the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party after she reached the required number of delegates, on June 6^th, 2016. At this time, the Americans had their bets on Clinton winning the electoral campaign. However, just after this announcement Clinton had been making headlines in relation to a FBI investigation which had been instigated after Donald Trump and his supporters made allegations that, in March 2015, Clinton's practice of using her own private email address and server during her time as Secretary of State, concerns were raised about security and preservation of emails, and the possibility that laws may have been violated. Prior to the release of this magazine issue, the FBI investigation was concluded on July 5^th, 2016, with a recommendation of no charges. After this notification that Hilary did not commence any crimes, it was believed that she was in the running’s again to becoming the President of the United States.

Teresa May was important to UK readers at the time of this magazines release, because David Cameron had stepped down as Prime Minister after the results of the Brexit referendum. Teresa May was newly elected to step in for the Conservatives party. It was considered within Britain a ‘breath of fresh air’ after the hassle Brexit and the pound coins worth plummeting. Teresa May also contributed to the fact that another female had not been in British power since Margaret Thatcher in 1975, so at this time, it seemed revolutionary for women as historically they had a severe lack of power and rights.

Taylor Swift was relevant at the time within the music industry because controversy has arisen over Kanye West’s music video for his recent song ‘Famous’. The video depicted 11 wax models of famous individuals laying in a large bed, naked. The video was inspired by Vincent Desiderio’s painting ‘Sleep’. One of the celebrities featured in the video is Taylor Swift, she was depicted naked, lying to the left of Kanye West himself. Taylor Swift’s main issue with her inclusion in the video was one lyric that stated “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous (Goddamn) I made that bitch famous”. Taylor Swift argued that she had not agreed with Kanye West using this line and therefore believed it was a violation of her right. The 8-year feud between Taylor Swift, Kayne West and Kim Kardashian continued when Swift fought for her rights.

Serena Williams was significant at the time of this magazines release because on July 9^th, 2016 Williams defeated Angelique Kerber in the finals at Wimbledon to claim her 22nd major singles title and tie the Open Era record for Grand Slam singles titles with Steffi Graf. She is the only tennis player in history (man or woman) to have won singles titles at least six times in three of the four Grand Slam tournaments. This, again, represents how women are rising in power contradicting against their ancestors’ lack of power in the past.

Following again from the humorous theme mentioned earlier within the editing of the main cover image, at the top right of the cover, beside the logo and issue number, the green ghost villain from the Ghostbusters movie is depicted as Donald trump. The Big Issue’s audience would appreciate this because Trump is a Republican campaigner, meaning he is right wing, thus, he is not support by The Big Issue and its reputable target audience so to be depicted as someone unlikeable or villainous, makes sense.

The main (and only) copy line consisted of the typography being surrounded by a white glow, making it easier to see. The white glow around the main cover line could be interpreted to link to the foggy/smoke theme based around the background of the visual narrative. The text states “Who you gonna call’ this creates anchorage to the cover image as it then confirms and identifies the ghost busters theme. “Who you gonna call?” Is a clear reference to main lyric of the ghost busters theme song, which would be easily recognisable from the old movies. However, instead of ending the lyric typically with saying 'ghostbusters', in its place ends with 'the new female front line'. Again, relating to the significant power that the 4 women depicted had at the time of the release of the issue. In the background of the image, landmarks from London can be seen such as the Westminster Abbey and the White House. These are significant because they relate to the politicians specifically. Linking back to the ghostbusters theme, these buildings pose significance because they essentially set the scene for the “movie” of the ‘New female frontline’.