The Big Issue International Issues; Regulation and Global Implications.

1. The Big IssueInternational Issues; Regulation and Global Implications.

2. “Media Institution” • A media institution is often an established, often profit based organization that deal in the creation and distribution of advertisement, entertainment and information services. • Examples of these are the BBC, ITV and BSkyB. • A media conglomerate is a media group or media institution/ company that owns large numbers of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies, and the Internet. • The Walt Disney Company is America's largest media conglomerate in terms of revenue,withNews Corporation (now News Corp & 21st Century Fox), Time Warner, CBS Corporation, and Viacom completing the top five.

3. Walt Disney Company 2011 Revenue: $40.1 billion Company Overview: The Walt Disney Company owns the ABC television network; cable networks including ESPN, the Disney Channel, SOAPnet, A&E and Lifetime; 277 radio stations, music- and book-publishing companies; film-production companies Touchstone, Miramax and Walt Disney Pictures; Pixar Animation Studios; the cellular service Disney Mobile; and theme parks around the world. TV: Eight television stations and the ABC television network; ESPN; Disney Channels Worldwide; ABC Family; SOAPnet Networks; A&E (42 percent stake); Lifetime Television (42 percent stake); the History Channel (42 percent stake); Lifetime Movie Network (42 percent stake); the Biography Channel (42 percent stake); History International (42 percent stake); Lifetime Real Women (42 percent stake); Live Well Network (42 percent stake) Radio:ESPN Radio Network; Radio Disney Print: ESPN The Magazine; Disney Publishing Worldwide; Juvenile Publishing; Digital Publishing; Disney Music Publishing; Marvel Publishing Entertainment:Marvel Entertainment; ABC Studios; ABC Media Production; Pixar; Walt Disney Pictures; Walt Disney Records; Hollywood Records; Mammoth Records; Buena Vista Records; Lyric Street Records Other: Buena Vista Concerts; Disney Mobile; Disney Theatrical Productions; the Disney Store; Disney theme parks and water parks; Disney English; Disney Interactive Media Group; Disney Games; Playdom, Inc. News Corp 2011 Revenue: $33.4 billion Company Overview: News Corporation’s media holdings include the FOX Broadcasting Company; television and cable networks such as Fox, Fox Business Channel, National Geographic and FX; print publications including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and TV Guide; the magazines Barron’s and SmartMoney; book publisher HarperCollins; film production companies 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Blue Sky Studios; numerous websites including MarketWatch.com; and non-media holdings including the National Rugby League. TV: Twenty-seven television stations and FOX Broadcasting Company (FOX Network, MyNetworkTV); FOX News; FOX Business; FOX News Radio Network; FOX News Talk Channel; FSN (12 regional sports networks); FX; SPEED; FUEL TV; Fox College Sports; Fox Movie Channel; Fox Soccer Channel; Fox Soccer Plus; Fox Pan American Sports; Fox Deportes; Big Ten Network; National Geographic U.S.; Nat Geo Adventure; Nat Geo Music; Nat Geo Wild; Fox International Channels; Utilisima; Fox Crime; NEXT; FOX History & Entertainment; the Voyage Channel; STAR World; STAR Movies; NGC Network International; NGC Network Latin America; LAPTV; Movie City; City Mix; City Family; City Stars; City Vibe; the Film Zone; Cinecanal; Elite Sports Limited; BabyTV; STAR India; STAR Taiwan; ESPN STAR Sports; Shine Limited Online Holdings: Hulu.com (32 percent minority share) Print: HarperCollins Publishers; the New York Post; the Daily News; News International (the Times; the Sunday Times; the Sun); News Limited (146 newspapers in Australia); Dow Jones (Wall Street Journal, Barron's, SmartMoney, Factiva, Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Local Media, Dow Jones VentureSource) Telecom: Satellite: BSkyB (39 percent minority share); SKY Italia Entertainment: Fox Filmed Entertainment; Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment; Twentieth Century Fox Television; Twentieth Television; Fox Television Studios Other: Marketing/advertising: News America Marketing Group; News Outdoor; Fox Library; IGN Entertainment, Inc.; Making Fun, Inc.; Wireless Generation “THE BIG FOUR”

4. CBS Corporation 2011 Revenue: $14.2 billion Company Overview: CBS Corporation "has operations in virtually every field of media and entertainment, including broadcast television (CBS and the CW — a joint venture between CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment), cable television (Showtime Networks, Smithsonian Networks and CBS Sports Network), local television (CBS television stations), television production and syndication (CBS Television Studios, CBS Studios International and CBS Television Distribution), radio (CBS Radio), advertising on out-of-home media (CBS Outdoor), publishing (Simon & Schuster), interactive media (CBS Interactive), music (CBS Records), licensing and merchandising (CBS Consumer Products), video/DVD (CBS Home Entertainment), motion pictures (CBS Films) and socially responsible media (EcoMedia)." TV: Twenty-nine television stations and CBS Television Studios; CBS Entertainment; CBS News; CBS Sports; CBS television stations; CBS Television Studios; CBS Studios International; CBS Television Distribution; the CW; Showtime; CBS College Sports Network; CBS Television Network; Smithsonian Networks Radio: CBS Radio and 130 radio stations Online Holdings: CBS Interactive; CNET Print: Simon & Schuster; Watch! Magazine; Pocket Books; Scribner; Free Press (publishing house) Entertainment: CBS Films Other: CBS Outdoor; CBS Connections; EcoMedia Time Warner, Inc. 2011 Revenue: $29 billion Company Overview: Time Warner is the world's second-largest entertainment conglomerate with ownership interests in film, television and print. TV: One television station and the Warner Brothers Television Group; Warner Brothers Television; Warner Horizon Television; CW Network (50 percent stake); TBS; TNT; Cartoon Network; truTV; Turner Classic Movies; Boomerang; CNN; HLN; CNN International; HBO; Cinemax; Space; Infinito; I-Sat; Fashion TV; HTV; Much Music; Pogo; Mondo TV; Tabi; CNN Español Online Holdings: Warner Brothers Digital Distribution; TMZ.com; KidsWB.com Print: Time, Inc.; 22 magazines including People, Sports Illustrated, Time, Life, InStyle, Real Simple, Southern Living, Entertainment Weekly and Fortune Entertainment: Warner Brothers; Warner Brothers Pictures; New Line Cinema; Castle Rock; WB Studio Enterprises, Inc.; Telepictures Productions, Inc.; Warner Brothers Animation, Inc.; Warner Home Video; Warner Premiere; Warner Specialty Films, Inc.; Warner Brothers International Cinemas Other: Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment; DC Entertainment; DC Comics

5. Press Complaints Commission • The Press Complaints Commission is a voluntary regulatory body for British printed newspapers, magazines and other media. It consists of representatives of all the major publishers. The PCC is funded by the annual levy it charges newspapers and magazines. It has no legal powers in which all newspapers and magazines voluntarily contribute to the costs of, and to the rulings of, the Commission, making the industry self-regulating. • It is there to protect against miss representation and to stop inaccurate information being fed to people through the media. • Upon further research the Big Issue has no mentioning on the PCC and has no complaints filed against it, this is because the Big Issue is not a sensational magazine unlike the big corporate company's such as the Daily mail, Hello etc.

6. Are there any adjudications against the Big Issue? • There are no adjudications against the big issue because it is not a sensationalist magazine and is very key to its roots about supporting the homeless and does not try to compete with larger companies. • I came to a similar conclusion about “Ladsmags” readerships because its so specific and narrow and distinctly for men that people know what genre of magazine it is and what they are getting.

7. Is the Big Issue Global? • How many other country's have the Big Issue? The Big Issue’s influence is greater than the business itself. It is a founding member of the International Network of Street Papers, which represents similar social businesses in 50 countries and The Big Issue trademark has been adopted by magazines in Asia, Africa and Australia. The Big Issue is produced in nine country's on four continents and is rapidly rising. • Do you see the Big Issue as Influential? The Big Issue isn't an influential magazine in the terms of politics but is influential in localised areas with town councils etc. It isn't influential because if it tried to talk on the terms of major politics it would be competing with others which isn't what its about. It is influential and revolutionary in the way that its “Vendorcentric” and helps the homeless people all across the world. • What is its appeal to a “global audience”? Its appeal as a global audience is still the homeless because that is the magazines roots and purpose, it appeals to the homeless the same way as it does in this country, a way out from poverty and being homeless while being an entrepreneur in the process. This is why it has the same appeal like it does in other country's.

8. Does The Big Issue exist in digital form? • No, this is because if it was on the internet it wouldn’t be vendorcentric. Since venders hand it out it has more of an effect on the public, this is because they are seeing it for themselves which will create more of a drastic effect of the public, because they will see how the venders are and too see how they are living, this will encourage more people to buy “The Big Issue”. • If it was on the internet it wouldn’t create such a dramatic effect on the audience, although it would make it more worldwide it wouldn’t get the attention it should. Also, the magazine would lose money.

9. What have you come to understand by the term: ‘Vendorcentric’? • What is Vendorcentric? • The term ‘Vendorcentric’ means everything the vendors earn when selling the Big Issue they get given, basically it focuses on the people selling it and gives them the money rather than a big cooperate company (Institutions/Conglomerates). • Research any news articles regarding Praise or Criticism for the Big Issue? • Praise For The Big Issue • This happy mixture is presumably what accounts for a good portion of the 147,000 copies sold every week (the figure has held steady over the past year, which in this market ranks as an achievement). But the Big Issue, which turns 18 this week, is more interesting than that – and the game is given away by the two Streetlights pages at the end of each issue. Written by homeless contributors (all the other pages are by professional journalists), they remind you why the Big Issue exists. It provides a living for 2,500 homeless people who sell copies of the magazine every week on pitches up and down the country. The Big Issue was not the first homeless paper – Gordon Roddick got the idea from New York's Street News – but it is now the most famous, with versions in Ethiopia, Australia and around the world. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/sep/19/inpraiseof-big-issue

10. Criticism For The Big Issue • Even John Bird, the founder of the Big Issue, acknowledges this. The Big Issue, he has always said, is supposed to be a "hand-up, not a hand-out" – a step on the ladder for homeless people in search of work, not a place of permanent employment. Bird also happens to be of a soundly free market, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps persuasion. I doubt, somehow, that he intended his noble enterprise to become a vehicle for Roma gipsies to come and fleece the British taxpayer. • ‘’I was told that because I am Romanian I could not get benefits unless I have a job or I am in self-employment. They said work for the Big Issue didn't count.’’ • "The case was taken to the upper tribunal last week and we won. I am really pleased if this decision means that people from countries like Romania and Bulgaria who come to the UK to work hard are not treated unfairly." • Interesting use of the word "unfairly", there. What I'd consider unfair is the National Debt being driven higher and the British taxpayer being ripped off by gangs of shiftless immigrants who clearly have no intention whatsoever of contributing to the British economy (the woman has been here since 2007, for God's sake) or integrating with the host culture (five years and she still needs to speak through an interpreter, paid for again at our expense), only to exploit our suicidally generous welfare system. • http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100130664/selling-the-big-issue-is-not-a-proper-job/ • I guess that The Big Issue can be considered both good and bad in ways in which it supposedly helps people, because for most of the vendors they see as a big help which will help them fight unemployment, whereas other vendors see as a permanent job so that they can work full - time and be paid up-front.