Big Issue Essay Question

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Analyse why the big issue magazine has used an intertextual approach to the referendum on its front cover.


Intertextuality is the shaping of a text's meaning by another text, it is a literary device that creates an 'interrelationship between texts' and generates related understanding in separate works.
The Big Issue magazine has recently issued a magazine about the EU referendum (brexit) and uses an ABBA references with the use of the different personalities (Nicola Sturgeon, David Cameron, Boris Johnson and Nigel Ferage).
The speech text is lyrics of songs by ABBA, David Cameron's 'Knowing me, Knowing EU' relates to David Cameron because he is against Brexit and is a pun used to humour and the draw the audiences' attention, providing them with information in a more interesting way that would be enjoyable to read rather than feeling obligated to read it. 'Breaking up is never easy I know' relates to Nicola Sturgeon because breaking up from the EU may not be easy but she still supports it as she believes it will be best for the future. Each 'character' relates to each personality and what they think is best for the members if the EU and the future. However, this could be seen in a different light, the big issue is making a joke out of the referendum, suggesting they may think the referendum is a joke, even if it is unintentional, which is a disadvantage of intertextuality.
The main title, 'The winner takes it all' is also one of ABBAs songs which relates to the referendum as the winner would take all the votes and have their way and the 'losers stand small'. The images used are hysterical, and are used to mock, making the magazine more interesting and would likely attract more viewers than if it was serious because the audience appreciate some humor. Suggesting that using intertextuality can be an advantage to the big issue magazine in the respect that more people would be interested in buying it, widening the target audience.
The intertextuality fits nicely with the referendum as the lyrics fit and can be used to match the individuals with different perspectives/ ideologies. Using intertextuality comes across as clever and thought out, especially in this instance where each character is paired up with a personality of the different candidates for the referendum.
The main reasons to use intertextuality is for comedy and entertainment. The comedy is not just for entertainment however, it has educational purposes, for people who do not like reading papers of general hard news it will provide important information in a way that they wouldn't mind to read.











 

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