The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Big Issue

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The Big Issue is a street newspaper founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991 and published on four continents. It is one of the UK's leading social businesses and exists to offer homeless people, or individuals at risk of homelessness, the opportunity to earn a legitimate income, thereby helping them to reintegrate into mainstream society. It is the world's most widely circulated street newspaper. While the magazine conforms to many of the conventions of consumerism and lifestyle magazines in terms of form and layout its unique emphasis on social justice and ethical consumerism makes it stand out. This is an example of Steve Neale's genre theory whereby innovative media forms repeat generic conventions while subtly adapting those rules to create a difference. In this sense, the USP of the Big Issue is its left-wing socialist principles and mode of distribution by the homeless.

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The cover of the Big Issue uses media language in a number of ways to convey messages and values to its intended target audience. In the first instance, the masthead Big Issue can be broken down into two parts: 'big' meaning large or of great size; and 'issue', which infers an important topic or problem for debate or discussion. 'Issue' is also polysemantic and self-referential, referring to the magazine itself as an issue: denoting how many times the periodical has been published during that year. This is an example of what Jean Baudrillard would view as postmodern cultural practice in terms of the duality of meaning and the self-referential connotations. Issue number 1227 is a special commemorative issue celebrating twenty-five years since the Big Issue's launch in 1991. “Issues”: is also a euphemism for mental or emotional problems, as in 'he has issues'.

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​​​​​​​The magazine’s tagline (‘A hand up not a handout’) also helps to establish a sense of its ethos and purpose. Big Issue is not begging or charity per se: selling The Big Issue is a job that facilitates vendors to get a rung on the ladder out of homelessness. The date and issue number are featured discretely (No1227) suggesting the magazine has a ‘legacy’: something that happens or exists as a result of things that happened at an earlier time. This is reinforced in the content of the magazine in which the story of the Big Issue is told using an underdog success narrative that Todorov would say conforms to standard conventions of the folk tale. Likewise, the use of the determiner “every” to reinforce how regularly the magazine is published “every Monday £2.50” suggests continuity and permanence.

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In terms of visual codes, the stamp style of the masthead in block capital typeface suggests the authenticity and authority of the brand. The absence of a barcode makes it seem less corporate and reinforces the fact that it can only be purchased from a street vendor.​​​​​​​ The main image (which takes up two-thirds) invokes a retro entertainment-themed billboard style of London's West End theatres, or Las Vegas signage. There is also an intertextual reference to Hollywood – 21st Century Fox branding. The bulbs suggest celebrity and notoriety, and this is reinforced by star imagery around the 25. The dark background contrasts with the bright colours and makes the main images stand out. However, it also gestures to night-time and some of the places we might see people sleeping rough: in city centres and shop doorways. This contrast of light and dark, celebrity versus homeless conforms to Levi Straus's structuralist viewpoint that meaning is binary i.e opposites reveal categories that show how society and culture organize themselves.

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Throughout issue 1227, there is a subtle anthropomorphizing/personification of the Big Issue as a person celebrating a birthday. This is reinforced by video content and birthday wishes and salutations from well know people. There is also a banner listing the names of celebrities featured in this issue with an emphasis on big names from the world of sport, tv, film, politics, and popular music. Very often these are people who are ‘institutions’ like the Big Issue itself e.g. Michael Palin, the Dalia Lama, Julie Walters, Daniel Radcliffe, etc. Institutions are "​​​​​​​stable, valued, recurring patterns of behaviour", or "mechanisms of social order". Collectively they embody what Roland Barthes would define as 'a mythology': a semiotic meaning greater than the sum of their parts.​​​​​​ In contrast to this, emphasis is also placed on the vendors who are listed in capital letters. The special anniversary issue connotes that the date on which the Big Issue was launched was a landmark event.

 

Inside the magazine, the content explicitly articulates messages and values. The editor’s letter outlines the ideology and viewpoint of the magazine e.g. being ‘a rebel voice that challenges orthodoxy and standardized received notions’.​​​​​​ Features such as ‘My Pitch’ go against mainstream media conventions by giving a voice to the homeless and vulnerably housed. The magazine’s values are also conveyed through the positive, aspirational representation of Big Issue vendors in the ‘Moving On’ feature.  Donato Barbieri is 70 and has been selling for a number of months. Life has thrown a lot at him, but, he says, “The Big Issue gave an old man a sense of purpose again.”

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Potentially controversial is the platform given to Theresa May who salutes The Big Issue and unveils a new homelessness funding package and a change of policy approach.  She says, “Just like The Big Issue, I also believe in the power of prevention… I believe it’s time we changed our approach. We need to put prevention at the heart of a new approach.”  This is somewhat contradictory as elsewhere in the magazine the editorial pulls no punches in attributing blame for the rise in homelessness to the Conservative government of which she is the leader. Likewise, the Letter to My Younger Self with Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry is potentially controversial. On the surface, as a transvestite, he embodies gender codes that challenge heteronormative conventions. However, just as he is both a father and straight, the Big Issue reinforces patriarchal values in the veneration of older white men. Paul Weller, John Bird, Gordon Roddick, John Lydon, and Alex Ferguson are all presented as heroes while women, like Julie Walters and Joanna Lumley, tend to be referred to in much more neutral terms.

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Overall, the Big Issue uses media language to convey a complex range of messages and value to its highly literate ABC1 reformer audience. The conflicted nature of these messages reflects the contested and diverse nature of the way in which identity is represented in contemporary media and the general bricolage effect of postmodern culture. The Big Issue is a unique magazine that has challenged the conventions of magazine publishing, reframing the way in which British people think about homelessness, austerity, social injustice, and the potential of business to operate in ways that at ethical. The fact that it has gone on to have an impact with international editions in counties that include Australia, Ireland, South Korea, South Africa, and Japan is testimony to both its ideological reach and innovative use of media language.