The Big Issue: Assessment Task 1

On the 18^th July, The Big Issue released it’s 1214^th issue, this is shown above the masthead on the magazine. The magazine has a very clear intertextual analysis of the most recent ‘Ghostbusters’ film. This movie was released just 7 days before this issue of The Big Issue was. This is clearly shown as the Ghostbuster movie because of the iconic theme song line “who you gonna call?”, this is the line everybody knows. Another way the Ghostbuster movie is shown in the magazine, is by the way the people in the main image are dressed in the costume and standing just like the original actors with the laser guns, elements of mise en scene, in the first advertisement who are Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones. However, in The Big Issues front cover they have (most likely) photoshopped the heads off and replaced them with the most other important women during July 2016, who are; Hilary Clinton, Teresa May, Taylor Swift and Serena Williams. The heads of the 4 women are heavily photo shopped to make the front covers main image slightly comical, this being the visual narrative.

Hilary Clinton was a very important person for world readers and reporters, this is because during the US presidential election campaign she was against Donald Trump. Her aims were to help increase racial, LGBT awareness as well as other things. This makes her left- wing, appealing to the primary target audience of The Big Issue, who were more socially aware people. However, in the view of most American Press, Clinton was the most favoured nominee of the Democratic Party. After this, Trump made allegations against Clinton claiming she used her own personal email during her time as the Secretary of State, this became an FBI investigation, 5^th July 2016, in Clintons favour.

Teresa May was in The Big Issue after David Cameron had stepped down as Prime Minister after the end of the Brexit referendum. After this Tereasa May was elected to stand in for the Conservative party. She was also major towards the UK as she has been the only other female prime minister since Margaret Thatcher.

Taylor Swift was a significant woman for her to be on the front cover for this magazine front cover. The reason for this was because Kanye West’s music video for his most recent song ‘Famous’, which showed 11 wax models of famous individuals laying in a large bed, naked. One of these celebrities featured in the video was Taylor Swift, she was showed naked, lying to the left of Kanye West himself. Her main issue with her part of this video/ song was the one lyric that stated “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex” “Why? I made that b***h” famous”. Swift arguing that she had not agreed to this with Kanye West using these lines and believed it was a violation of her rights.

Serena Williams was important at the time of this magazines front cover release because on 9^th July 2016 Williams defeated Angelique Kerber in the finals at Wimbledon to claim her 22nd singles title. Making her the only tennis player to have won singles titles at least six times in three of the four Grand Slam tournaments. Representing how women are rising in power.

The main copy line (the only copy line of the newspaper) states “Who you gonna call’ this creates anchorage to the main cover image as it confirms the ghost busters theme tune. Instead of typically saying 'ghostbusters' at the end of the recognisable song “who you gonna call”, The Big Issue have put in ‘the new female front line', reinforcing the idea that women have had a successful year/ month and they are on top of their game and are increasing in the amount of power they actually have.