Media Essay Practice - Suffragette Freda.

How do these representations reflect the industry context/ ideology of The Big Issue?

In this essay, I am going to examine the representations that are being portrayed in this cover of the 'Big Issue'. Firstly, in terms of the mis-en-scene, the overall structure of this front cover takes on an appearance of a very vintage 40's looking style, with a home-made aesthetic, which is a typical norm of the Big Issue magazine. The homemade aesthetic is particularly effective as the aesthetic can portray a sense of comfortability and make people feel more welcome. The 40's looking aesthetic may bring back a sense of nostalgia to the people who were born back in the 40's and hence, can relate to the magazine and look back at the time in the 40s. Next, we see the big and bold masthead 'A suffragette Century Freda" which holds an old looking typography and may portray that it dates back to perhaps the 40s/50s. We can further see that it stands out the most from all of the other text, which instantly introduces what the whole magazine is about; the suffragettes who formed in 1903 and have battled their way for women's equality for years. Below, we see the cover lines: "Her lifetime of incredible change" which depicts she has struggled a lifetime of trying to get women rights and has gone through a 'lifetime' of change in getting those women rights, which again, is effective as it emphasises how hard it was for her to achieve this. The typography, as mentioned earlier, is very old and vintage looking; large serif, dark purple-looking font, old/vintage typography, which again creates a sense of nostalgia to the 40s. The choice of purple is cleverly used, as the colour purple can hold connotations of pride and independence, which is certainly what the Suffragettes were about. Most importantly, in this informative front cover, we see a cut-out looking image of a woman, supposedly called Freda and a suffragette, in a mid-shot, where we can only see from the waist up and is seen making direct address to her audience and is smiling, which could connote she is happy about her accomplishments as a suffragette and has successfully gained women's rights and also the background takes an appearance of an antique look that definitely predates back to the 40s.

Secondly, in terms of the overall messages and values being communicated is very obvious; it's all about women's equality and women's rights -that took many years to establish this and the fact that it is established, is a big deal and still, needs to be talked about as enforcing women's rights was a challenge throughout the years. Furthermore, in terms of other important factors, such as political/social and cultural context, the Suffragette movement was a political movement and the idea of suffragettes were members of militant women's organisations in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", who fought for the right to vote in public elections, known as women's suffrage. In terms of the target audience, it's very likely that this is aimed at the elderly, perhaps to reflect back on the big achievement of getting women's rights and perhaps young women, to learn about the history of the suffrage movement and how women's rights came about.

In conclusion, I think that this front cover of the Big Issue is very positive and lovely, it indeed does show a powerful connotation on women's rights and how it was hard to achieve it through all those years. The fact that we see Freda smiling here portrays her happiness and how proud she is of how women's rights was finally established, and it is important to also learn the history of the suffrage movement as it was incredibly popular and challenged social, political and cultural factors.