Big Issues

Explain how the representations in magazines reflect their contexts

Question 5 Explain how the representations in magazines reflect their contexts. Refer to The Big Issue covers you have studied to support your answer. [10]

The front covers of The Big Issue are like adverts for the magazine, so in the same way as with advertising they tend to reflect the influence of consumerism. The Big Issue magazine is designed to help homeless people and so tends to have a more political, more altruistic and less consumerist focus. 

The Big Issue always uses a tagline of ‘a hand up not a hand out’, which makes people feel as though they aren’t pitying vendors but giving them a helping hand towards the issues of homelessness and making a difference to other people’s lives. One of the magazines studied features Paddington Bear, who is a popular, fictional character in children's literature. He first appeared on 13 October 1958 in the children's book A Bear Called Paddington written by British author Michael Bond and illustrated by Peggy Fortnum and other artists. This is mostly for promoting the film in a positive light (underneath the masthead the date is shown - November 12th 2017, which is shortly before the film was released- intertextuality, cultural) and he is happily smiling with a friendly gesture of waving, almost welcoming the audience. However, it also states that Paddington is from Peru and is now living in England, therefore an immigrant. As an audience, we love Paddington and his story and accept him into this country - this magazine is clearly stating that we should treat others the same and that they are ‘one of us’. Furthermore, the anchorage text stresses the importance of immigration, British and social values: Paddington is labelled as an ‘icon’, therefore meaning he is influential and symbolic. It labels everyone as equals and that we are all one - British pride. ‘The new spirit of Christmas’ - he is going to change the festive season for the better, he is a fun, happy and influential character - he makes a good difference, all migrants do, in their own unique way. Additionally, the bold, daring font uses symbolism within the Bear’s poor stamp strongly states that he has an identity and further represents the idea of being ‘one of us’. The costume and props within this magazine also highlights the importance of homelessness: a worn out hat, a petite woolly coat and small briefcase. Despite the amusing and unusual side of a bear wearing clothes, this further reinforces the idea of ‘migrating’ and the stereotype of somewhat being homeless - has come from nothing, everything he owns, all his possessions, are fitted within a small holder. Furthermore, this also puts a positive light on homelessness and homeless people (what the big issue believes in.)  Within this magazine the colour scheme is mostly primary - red, blue and yellow. They show a deepening contrast but also complement each other. The blue jacket and background represents the crisp atmosphere (setting and time - Christmas) but also corresponds with the pride colours of Britain. The tonal red symbolizes love and passion, which needs to be shared towards all migrants. The golden yellow represents happiness and further emphasizes the festive season. The harsh lighting from the street light enables Paddington himself and the magazine as a whole to attract the viewer but also highlights his importance as he is an ‘icon’. The white snow also symbolizes purity and innocence, which further explores the idea of letting migrants becoming one of us. Moreover, Paddington bear is placed in the centre of the image, showing his importance and the eye level camera shot signifies the social structure; everyone is equal and we are one. Lastly, the imagery of Big Ben in the background, tying in a political element almost towers over Paddington, which gives a sense of empowerment but also shows that they are going to protect him.

Another example would be the front cover magazine promoting The greatest showman. It powerfully presents famous movie stars - Christopher Wylie, Kendrick, Gallagher, Spinal tap guy, Grace Jones, Beyoncé and Hugh Grant – who are strongly influential and dramatically significant in today’s society. Since the release of the film, it has had a huge impact on its meaningful message towards the change of society, especially the song ‘this is me’. This appears to have a future as an anthem for the marginalized, disenfranchised, the bullied and the outcast. And in a year when “diversity” is on everyone’s minds and lips, that means it could gain further attention and purpose. The characters find their sense of power and pride – ‘we are who we are, and we’re going to own our own identity’, which is what The Big issue supports strongly and further emphasizes their own personal message towards homeless people and the society. Moreover, the magazine front cover is aiming to attract everyone; to address the issues of class, race and inequality. They do this by presenting characters of all races and colours, as well as the characters that are in different classes. For example, Hugh Jackman’s character (centred in the middle) came from nothing and made a name for himself through performing in a circus. The women that does gymnastics on a hoop, in the film, was black and poor and people treated her badly due to the lower class that she was in. This sense of positivity enables an optimistic message, giving people hope a purpose. This is further emphasized by the costumes: the colour and style of the costumes vary to differentiate the characters and what they look like. The film’s overall message presents that everyone is different and that you shouldn’t change to please another person. Everyone is special in their own way and people should not judge or look down on those that are seen as ‘different’.

To conclude The Big Issue 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. They present these issues, as well as politcal, social and cultural elements, through their front covers, upon colour, costumes, typography, actors etc. 

   

big issue information

- language and representation
- social, cultural or political context
- niche magazine outside of the commercial market

- need to learn 2 big issue covers after Sept 2018
- an alternative to the mainstream
- usually, choose British orientated covers - national significance is important

- CLIFTS

- CLAMPS

- FAM - frame, angle, movement (magazines no movement)

magazines key words:
circulation - the number of copies a magazines sells - 200 million copies from 2016
readership - not just who buys the magazine but the total number of people likely to read it
mass audience - readership on a very large scale
niche audience - a narrow group of readers with a particular interest
subscription - where a reader pays for a set number of copies of a magazine in advance at a lower price and receives them by post

Big issue use a lot of intertextuality - working with lots of different media texts (films, magazine etc)

masthead - the title of the magazie
plug - text that 'plugs' a feature that will aprear in the magazine
puff - a story that is given promience on the conver
cover star - the 'star' featured on the cover
anchorage text - text that anchors the main image and gives it context/meaning
banner - text that runs across the lower section of the cover
skyline - text that runs across the top of the cover

advertising in magazine
producer, audience, adverts

without adverting, no magazine could survive. if a magazine did not contain ads, then its COVER PRICE would be three of four times greater.

the INCOME for a magazine comes from both sales and advertising. on average, advertising counts for 70% of a magazine income.

a magazine with a small CIRCULATION is more dependent on advertising than one with a large circulation.

The Big Issue and homelessness 

about 100,000 copies of The Big Issue are sold every week in Britain
in 2013, the big issue vendors made more than £5 million
100 peoplle approach the big ussue foundation each week
theres more than 5,000 people homeless in Britain
the big issue has inspires similaar papers inmore than 120 countries

notch article

Notch Article

• Notch was celebrating raising £280,000 for three charities by making a new game in 60 hours.
• The second is selling 5 million copies of Mine craft (A blocky-looking game).
• He is name is Marcus Perrson however he is also referred to as 'Notch' meaning Jesus in the urban dictionary.
• He started Minecraft on his own in 2009.
• Then he formed the Video Game company Mojang.
• He deliberately left features out to entice the audience to interact with one another.
• Every Friday he would introduce updates, which was perfectly timed for people to relax and enjoy playing this emerging game over the weekend.
• Due to Perrsons PayPal account financially exploding they froze his account as they suspected fraud.
• On January 12th 2011 Minecraft surpassed a million units sold.
• By april, it was two million units.
• August it was three million.
• A few days before November it had surpassed four million copies!
• Then Minecon was created for all the fans and lovers to go and express themselves among one another.

minecraft escape room construction

BBC Radio 1 audition tape

genres/types of video games

RPG -  Role play game e.g. sims

SPORTS - e.g. NBA, Fifa

STRATEGY - fortnite, Tetris

ACTION/AVENTURE - Zelda

CONSTRUCTION/STRATEGY/BUILDING - Minecraft

FPS - First person shooter e.g counterstrike

SIMULATION -

HORROR - e.g. 5 nights at Freddies

PUZZLE SOLVING - e.g. portal

CHILDREN'S - e.g. Minecraft

key words

Platforms -different formats games are available in, such as IOS,PS4, Xbox, Linux

Cross media platforms - games avaialbe on more than one platform

Conglomerate - large media companies that own smaller media companies; i.e. sony

Developer - people or comapines that come up with that concept for the game

Digital distributor - making the game avaialble to audiences e.g. steam

Engine - a system designed for the creation and development of the video game e.g. 'unreal'

PEGI - Pan European Games Information - age rating system for regualtinig video games

Designer - people or companies who bring the concept of the game to life

RPG - Role Playing Games

MMORPG - massively multiplayer onlone role playing games

FPS - first person shooter

Event release - hyped date used heavily in makreting of new games

Triple A games - fifa, COD - an information classification used for video games with the highest development budgets and levels of promotions.

Open World - players free to roam in a virtual game world

DLC - downloadable content

Sandbox - style of a game that allows the user to change the world around them whenever they want

5 areas of research

Diff formats 4 Minecraft:

• Minecraft: java edition - playable on Windows, Mac and Linux (operating system for Mac)
• Minecraft for Windows 10 (bedrock edition), playable on windows 10, oculus rift and windows mixed reality at a cost of £20
• Minecraft for mobile devices (pocket edition) for £5
• Minecraft for x box 1 £15
• Minecraft for ps4 costs a total of £15

Crossplay: 

In video games, crossplay is a term used to describe the ability of a video game across different platform such as: computer/PC, XBOX, PlayStation, Nintendo, and mobile phone. 

Minecraft overall as a brand: 

Because its available on many platforms increases target audience and sales which ca nee reinvested into the game increasing the overall gameplay. Helps benefit producers of the game alongside the audience as the game they love every day is getting technically stronger and more enjoyable due to a larger fanbase. 

What is the realm? 

Minecraft realm is an official subscription based server hosting services that allow players to create and manage their own private Minecraft servers. realms are not meant for large public servers, but for groups of friends or a family.

Minecraft - skins

Skins is a feature which they implement into the game to allow for your visual character to have a different appearance. minecraft use a microtransaction system to allow players to purchase skins to add to their character.

Mash-up packs cost £3.99 and include texture pack, a skin pack, and a themed world.

What is twitch? - June 6th, 2011

Twitch is a streaming website that is primarily  based around gaming, but it is broadening its horizons with the IRL section, content creators stream anything that can entertain them and the fans, content creators can make money off of this by the fans donating twitch is also linked to Amazon giving people a twitch prime status to whoever has amazon prime.

why does it appeal to the audience?

because live streaming is very easy to use and is easy for lots of people to access compared to other platforms that have a more complex live stream.

Minecraft has its own twitch channel. They get fans who have been given log in passwords to stream videos for the audience

minecraft essay

C02 – Section A: Video Games & Minecraft

Lesson 1 – Homework

     Explain what it is, give an outline of the game’s history and explain why it has been a commercial and critical success 

Minecraft is a sandbox computer game (one with an open structure where the player is free to play without specific objectives) created and designed by Swedish programmer Marcus "Notch" Persson in 2009 and fully developed and published by Mojang on May 17th. Players in sandbox games are free to explore an environment, to choose which tasks they do, and often they have the ability to express themselves creatively within the game. In Minecraft, players build structures out of textured cubes in a 3D world. The key activities are mining (gathering resources) and crafting (making things with these resources) include exploration and combat - the game is only limited by their imagination. 

Minecraft has several different modes of play, and the two most popular are known as creative mode and survival mode. In survival mode the players start with nothing and have to explore, create and build in order to survive and progress in the game: they must collect and create all your tools, weapons, Armour etc.  

Creation mode however is completely different, as players have access to all the items in the game (it is unlimited). They are able to roam the map and create their own games and build and wear whatever they want when they want - its completely under the players control. The player also gains the ability to fly and mobs are passive towards them, which would be appealing to people who want to build and produce. A key to Minecraft's success and popularity is this ability to create and customize, which is really only limited by the players imagination. Minecraft also doesn't need to advertise a lot because the creations that players make in the game are used to advertise.

Minecraft’s initial reception wasn’t commercially viable, seen more as a niche product for players with expert knowledge of computers and programming. The game wasn’t really publicly advertised and mostly got around through word of mouth and small magazines. However by January 2011, the beta-version of the game had passed over one million purchases in just only a month, and by April 2011 Persson estimated that US $33 million of revenue had been made. In November 2011, prior to the game’s official release, Minecraft had over 16 million registered users and 4 million purchases. Because it was released across multiple platforms (Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo Switch, IOS, Android, Windows and PC) interactivity was increased and many people enjoyed the fact that they could interact with friends despite not having the same devices. Therefore, Minecraft has been a huge commercial success with over 121 million copies of the game sold (as of February 2017). An estimated 55 million people play every month and Minecraft is the 2nd best selling game of all time (behind Tetris.) Spin-off games have also been published including Minecraft: Story Mode, created by Telltale Games and Minecraft: Education Edition, created by Microsoft to be used in education facilities globally.

Minecraft has influenced popular culture through social media.  Minecraft video channels on Youtube and Twitch have huge followings - It allowed players to create walk-throughs and videos showing them playing Minecraft which created a community of people who share the love of Minecraft. A search for Minecraft on YouTube brings up 10 million different results. On top of this the game has received millions of dollars in merchandise revenue from T-Shirts to toys, and spawned its own convention, Minecon, which began in 2011. The convention has taken place in Las Vegas, Disneyland Paris, California, London and Orlando. In 2017, Minecon will take place via live-stream rather than a convention floor. A study at the University Pennsylvania found that 1/3 of people found out about Minecraft via social media. Most videos that are created or broadcasted on social media are mainly of players creations which helps to advertise the game. Videos also involve various mini games being played, explorations and survival modes. Social networks, such as Twitch, also promoted Minecraft, which continued the development of fan made media across social media platforms and dedicated fan sites and blogs, allowing Minecraft’s influence to widely spread.

market place

how is minecraft regulated

indepth timeline

minecraft realms

Minecraft Timeline

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