The view from ‘My Pitch

Homeless voices in The Big Issue during the cost-of-living crisis

Bibliographic Data

ID6421770
AuthorsSteven Harkin (0000-0001-6116-0460, University of Stirling, corresponding author), Jairo Lugo-Ocando (0000-0002-9533-2088, University of Sharjah, UAE)
Year2024
Volume36
Issue3
Pages350-364
Publication date2024-10-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiscourse & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0957-9265 • E-ISSN: 1460-3624
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/09579265241287871
OpenAlexW4403225883
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited35

This paper presents a framing analysis of 12 editions of The Big Issue published in the last 3 months of 2023. The study employs framing analysis to investigate the language used by the magazine to report on poverty and homelessness. The paper analyses the ‘My Pitch’ column which represents the voice of the often-homeless vendors who sell the magazine. Using Entman’s approach to framing we analyse how individuals with lived experience of poverty and homelessness define the causes and solutions to poverty and homelessness. Furthermore, the paper offers a critical examination of the claims of the magazine to provide a platform for marginalised voices. We find that the magazine offers a platform for people with lived experience of poverty and/or homelessness to have their voices heard, although the My Pitch column offers limited space to inform the magazine’s readers of the wider context of homelessness. It also reinforces social enterprise solutions to poverty and homelessness. This framing avoids discussing shortfalls in the UK welfare system although the narrative logic of these profiles offers latent evidence of welfare dysfunction

Aesthetics · Art · Media studies · Sociology · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Media Studies and Communication · Psychology

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