Year 12 Big Issue Cover Assessment name ______
Background: One of the most successful TV programmes moved from BBC to channel 4 in 2017 following a collapse in negotiations about fees. The BBC could not afford to pay as much as C4 for the broadcast rights. Popular judge Mary Berry, as well as its co-hosts Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc did not move with the programme. The series features new hostsNoel Fieldingfamous for The Mighty Boosh. andSandi Toksvig, and new judgePrue Leithalong with returning judgePaul Hollywood.
The tone of the cover is gently satirical, slightly subversive (but not in the extreme style of magazines like Viz or Private Eye. See The Daily Mash for an online example of satire). In its attack on establishment elites, it could be described as counter-hegemonic. The cover pokes fun at smug, white middle-class English values by depicting a nostalgic, utopian vision of greed, excess and a traditional rural English idyll - (the country garden, village fete etc) The images and tone are a stark contrast to the magazine's campaigning agenda.
Sec A Easier (2 marks)
1)The masthead – comment on border and typeface.2)How is the masthead different from conventional magazines?
3)What is its tagline? Comment.
4)Connotations of the yellow border and bunting?
5)Spot the intertextualreference to Donald Trump
(1 mark only for this)
6)A) Spot the French pun connected with Noel Fielding 6B) There are also lots of comic references to which 82 year old judge who left?
7)Presenters – what do they have in common? Which group is not shown?
8)Coverline at the bottom – use of a pun + wider connotations.
/15
Sec B Intermediate (3 marks)
9)What is the effect of the pretend scrawled graffiti? How does it add to the subversive, satirical and counter-hegemonic tone of the cover?10)Abundance of food is over the top. Why? Explain how it is satirical.
11)Comment on the general mise en scene & location of the main image. What is the tension/ contradiction / irony in terms of the magazine's values and campaigning agenda?
12)Gerbner's 'symbolic annihilation'. If an underrepresented, minority or vulnerable group is not given prominence or ignored in the media,it tends to suggest to audiences that the group is not important. Part of cultivation theory. How could you apply this here?
13)Give examples of humour. Why is it important? (mention audience; brand)
/16
Sec C Harder –(5 marks)
Write about
14)Representationsof Britishness.
15)Links to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
16)Links to the Hypodermic Needle Model
17)Links to Stuart Hall's encoding and decoding model & 3 Readings Model
/20
Total - 50