Print Media - Big Issue Essay (Representation of Poor) 500 words

70% of print media are politically right-wing, meaning that the mainstream media tend to view the working class as lazy and undeserving, and sometimes even present an 'underclass', those who depend on benefits instead of working. Theorists such as Butsch (1992) claim that the working class are portrayed as flawed individuals. Tabloids such as the Daily Mail create stereotypes of the working class through headlines such as '75% of incapacity claimants are fit to work', implying that the benefit system is cheated by the 'underclass'. This causes readers to feel little sympathy for the working class, and as a result creates the stereotype that they do not deserve to be helped as they are idle and lazy. Like the Daily Express, the Daily Mail tries to appear more upmarket and respectable than the red-top British tabloids though it does sometimes go in for the full front-page picture or headline characteristic of the populist rags. It is also notorious for its frequent harassment of individuals, campaigns of hate directed at various minorities (focusing on Muslims), and willfully deceiving and lying to its readers.

The Big Issue is one of the 30% of left-wing print media, a street newspaper which uses homeless citizens as its vendors, paying them £47.10 a week which is below the minimum earnings threshold of £153 a week (introduced by the DWP in March 2014). It presents the working class in a more positive light compared to other print media, using the Street Cat named Bob as an ambassador for homelessness on issue 1273, and associating with important figures such as Muhammed Yunis in issue 1277. Yunis is known for being a pioneer of the microcredit concept, and the founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. The Big Issue uses the slogan 'a hand up not a handout' which links to Yunis' microcredit concept as it encourages the 'underclass' to work and pay back their loan, until eventually they no longer need to borrow money. Muhammed Yunis believes this method is more successful and useful than charities due to the fact that donations may not encourage someone to become a working citizen, and with loans they have a reason to give back to society. 

While 25% of the Big Issue's vendors are Romanian, red top tabloids such as the Sun are releasing headlines such as 'Draw a red line on immigration or else'. Inside the paper, an editorial demanded action and said Britain was being "overwhelmed" by migrants. The front cover was labelled as xenophobic and caused some controversy due to the sensationalism. 

The Big Issue also represents the working class vastly differently from the broadsheet newspaper 'Guardian', which states that 'Homelessness could spread to middle class, study warns'. Although James Bowen stated on the One Show that homelessness has more than doubled since 2010, the Big Issue uses his success story to present homelessness as something that can be fixed, providing hope for those that are considered to be the 'underclass'.