The Voice CSP

 Language and contexts

Homepage

Go to the Voice homepage and answer the following:

1) What news website key conventions can you find on the Voice homepage?

There is a top menu bar, subscription icon, news content, thumbnails, advertisements, central images, search icon and advertisements.

2) What are some of the items in the top menu bar and what does this tell you about the content, values and ideologies of the Voice?

There are a range of content such as news, sports, lifestyle, entertainment, competitions, opinion and faith. It appeals to a large target audience including hard and soft news.

3) Look at the news stories on the Voice homepage. Pick two stories and explain why they might appeal to the Voice's target audience. 

One of the stories is about Chris Kabas death from a black community perspective as this newspaper presents the view of his death honestly without any racial stereotypes involves. Whereas a mainstream white British newspaper makes him appear as a gang member who's at fault due to his colour. Another story about an Archbishop of Canterbury’s ancestor was slave owner where they are want to call out the racist and show how even the innocent whites are hiding hidden crimes.

4) How is narrative used to encourage audience engagement with the Voice? Apply narrative theories (e.g. Todorov equilibrium or Barthes’ enigma codes) and make specific reference to stories on the homepage and how they encourage audiences to click through to them.

We can apply props theory through how this newspaper represents the white people as the villains in order to show how they're fighting against racist ideologies that were fist bough up from the British society. We can see this through the Archbishop that was slave owner as it intrigues their niche audience to see the evidence. Barthes enigma codes are applied by audience questioning how there's no justice for Chris due to the system and his race. They're are able to relate to this story due to having people close to them or even people they had know to have gone through something similar.

Lifestyle section

Now analyse the Lifestyle section of the Voice and answer the following:

1) What are the items in the sub-menu bar for the Lifestyle section and what does this suggest about the Voice audience?

The drop down bar is able to engage the audience with content that goes away from news so soft news. This can link to users and gratifications of diversion as its a sort of entertainment.  Its a whole collection of interests from the audience to highlight their black identity.

2) What are the main stories in the Lifestyle section currently?

The main stories are African entrepreneurs drive branding, resilience and economic transformation, Louis York & Gramps Morgan encourage the world to ‘Have a Little Light’ on new chart-topping song, ‘Our education system needs a complete revamp’ and Leeds Caribbean and African Communities celebrated in photographic collection.

3) Do the sections and stories in the Voice Lifestyle section challenge or reinforce black stereotypes in British media?

These sections challenge black stereotypes seen in Britain as we can see how the stories want to inform and even celebrate there achievements.

4) Choose two stories featured in the Lifestyle section – how do they reflect the values and ideologies of the Voice?

The story African entrepreneurs drive branding, resilience and economic transformation reflects the values and ideologies of the Voice through the way it talks about honouring Black contributions across all fields where it celebrates the unwavering spirit of Black men and women. The story on Leeds Caribbean and African Communities celebrated in photographic collection reflects there was a new photographic collection celebrating Leeds Caribbean and African communities to its national Archive.

Feature focus

1) Read this Voice opinion piece on black representation in the tech industry. How does this piece reflect the values and ideologies of The Voice?

This piece talks about the percentage of black people in the tech force and how we need to tackle this diversity gap. It reflects the values and ideologies as it wants to give equal opportunities to everyone in order to thrive in any sector or industry they want in order to to shape the culture and inspire innovation.

2) Read this feature on The Black Pound campaign. How does this piece reflect the values and ideologies of The Voice?

This piece is able to support its viewers as its an elements of exposure to target their audience. This is something that is not given from mainstream media fulfilling their values of giving back to the community.

3) Read this Voice news story on Grenfell tower and Doreen Lawrence. How might this story reflect the Voice’s values and ideologies? What do the comments below suggest about how readers responded to the article? Can you link this to Gilroy’s work on the ‘Black Atlantic’ identity?

It reflects how its able to point out the racial discrimination that had occurred during the Grenfell tower incident. People are against Mrs Lawrence's comment especially suggesting that the firefighters were racist. It suggests how even though there was a possibility of discrimination being involved, we are able to tell how the fire fighters risked their lives in order to save countless lives coloured or not. This could link to Black Atlantic identity as we can say how racism how been implemented in to daily lives and in fact normalised making it quite common to question this diversity gap in every situation, maybe even accusing others of being racist.

Social and cultural contexts - 40 Year of Black British Lives

Read this extract from The Voice: 40 Years of Black British Lives on rapper Swiss creating Black Pound Day (you'll need your Greenford Google login to access the document). Answer the following questions:

1) What is Black Pound Day?

It aimed at celebrating black owned businesses and giving the black community and financial and emotional boost after the racist inequality.

2) How did Black Pound Day utilise social media to generate coverage and support?

they were able to get top trending on Twitter making it a regular even that encouraged people to buy products from black owned businesses. 

3) How do events such as Black Pound Day and the Powerlist Black Excellence Awards link to wider social, cultural and economic contexts regarding power in British society?  

This events not only highlighted issues of systematic inequality, it showed the shit in how black Britons supported black owned businesses.

Audience

1) Who do you think is the target audience for the Voice website? Consider demographics and psychographics.

The target audience is quite niche and the Voice may be aimed at a minority. I believe it targets black women and men a lot older so around 20 to 60 in middle to low class. The psychographics could be aspirer, reformer or even explorers.

2) What audience pleasures are provided by the Voice website? Apply media theory here such as Blumler and Katz (Uses & Gratifications).

We can apply uses and gratifications such as diversification and surveillance as the newspaper not only informs its target audience put presents a entertainment like the lifstyle section.

3) Give examples of sections or content from the website that tells you this is aimed at a specialised or niche audience.

The news section when opened shows top stories, all four of them talk about black male or females in the titles showing their niche target audience.

4) Studying the themes of politics, history and racism that feature in some of the Voice’s content, why might this resonate with the Voice’s British target audience?

The Voice initially started out to give people from black backgrounds a voice in a white dominated country. These themes resonate with their target audience as they are features that got people to start reading the newspaper in hopes for a new point of view not discussed in mainstream newspapers.

5) Can you find any examples of content on the Voice website created or driven by the audience or citizen journalism? How does this reflect Clay Shirky’s work on the ‘end of audience’ and the era of ‘mass amateurisation’?

I believe that the Chris Kaba content may be written by the voice but is shaped through the audience by protests and online opinions. People taking to the streets in the form of protests shows Clay Shirky's end of an audience as people are not staying passive to what mainstream media has said about this case. Instead they are able to find people who agree with them and publicly go against it fighting for their voice.

Representations

1) How is the audience positioned to respond to representations in the Voice website?

The voice is able to represent the black community and even its culture more better than any newspaper. However, its main focus is black people which could also show lack of diversity when it comes to other races.

2) Are representations in the Voice an example of Gilroy’s concept of “double consciousness” NOT applying?

The concept of double consciousness is show in the newspaper as most of its target audience are black and European struggling to reconcile with both. It includes representations to show how it should be normalised for people to not be discriminated just for their race.

3) What kind of black British identity is promoted on the Voice website? Can you find any examples of Gilroy’s “liquidity of culture” or “unruly multiculturalism” here?

The Voice promotes a black British identity of everyone being equal and even innocent as they fight for the right viewpoints. This can shows Gilroy's theory as it highlights how we are moving towards a new society that is slowly evolving away from our past as we learn to mould with new ideas.

4) Applying Stuart Hall’s constructivist approach to representations, how might different audiences interpret the representations of black Britons in the Voice?

The Voice intended for people to preferably view black Britons as equal to everyone else without comment on race or cultural backgrounds. However, this can be interpreted differently by many audiences who may believe the black community should hold more power and have more rights after being treated wrongly. 

5) Do you notice any other interesting representations in the Voice website? For example, representations or people, places or groups (e.g. gender, age, Britishness, other countries etc.)

The representation of white people seems to be portrayed in a negative way where the newspaper only mentions other race when they are able to call them out for their wrong doings. This can also include the government and any 'racial' accusations they may make.

Industries

1) Read this Guardian report on the death of the original founder of the Voice. What does this tell you about the original values and ideologies behind the Voice brand? 

It talks about how Val McCalla wanted to have a newspaper that targeted people who were born in Britain and had spent most of their lives there. It built up a reputation for campaigning against racism and injustice and even captured people who had never had a voice.

2) Read this history of the Voice’s rivals and the struggles the Voice faced back in 2001. What issues raised in the article are still relevant today? 

It writes how it is being challenged as never before, its sales are in a slump, and many are wondering how much longer it can continue to claim to be "Britain's Best Black newspaper".

3) The Voice is now published by GV Media Group, a subsidiary of the Jamaican Gleaner company. What other media brands do the Gleaner company own and why might they be interested in owning the Voice? You'll need to research this using Google/Wikipedia or look at this Guardian article when Gleaner first acquired The Voice.

The Gleaner company also own Young Voices magazine from the family of Mr McCalla. They've been wanting to explant overseas in order to give their audience a better diaspore.

4) How does the Voice website make money?

Its able to make money from their subscription, advertisements, selling their book and even letting viewers give in donations through PayPal.

5) What adverts or promotions can you find on the Voice website? Are the adverts based on the user’s ‘cookies’ or fixed adverts? What do these adverts tell you about the level of technology and sophistication of the Voice’s website?

The adverts consist of things like marketing jobs or roles that are for or to help the target audience, this can show personal relationship as the writers care for their audience. They can be based on the audience or fixed like the product placement of their book. It could show how the evolution of tech has made it so that the advertisements are personalised to the user through their recent searches or watched.

6) Is there an element of public service to the Voice’s role in British media or is it simply a vehicle to make profit?

The news paper initially did start out as a public service and still to this day provide information key to the black community that is not correctly represented in mainstream. However, over time as it has become even more niche then it was, there is this sort of yearn to make profit through many advertisements, moving online so that viewers can get a subscription.

7) What examples of technological convergence can you find on the Voice website – e.g. video or audio content?

There is some convergence when it comes to the interviews which both come as a video or even an audio shown at the bottom of the screen.

8) How has the growth of digital distribution through the internet changed the potential for niche products like the Voice?

It has made it more easier for niche media to reach out and branch across the world to find their target audience. Being able to connect with viewers and get their responses immediately can show how it is getting easier to attract your desired audience.

9) Analyse The Voice’s Twitter feed. How does this contrast with other Twitter feeds you have studied (such as Zendaya's)? Are there examples of ‘clickbait’ or does the Voice have a different feel?

The Voices Twitter page opens up to their profile image and there banner that empathizes that their the only British black newspaper. This can be seen in their bio as well as it not only separates their place in society, establishing their brand but highlights how they might want to be the only one. Their followings have quite a huge difference to magazines like GQ as it reinforces their niche news and low figures or engagements. the voice has a feel of clickbait as they are constantly self promoting either their newspaper or book.

10) Study a selection of videos from The Voice’s YouTube channel. What are the production values of their video content?

The voice is seen to offer very low productions values especially in their video content. Their videos, especially interview, is seen to be on a low budget. This is shown through overall quality of production, audio levels, backdrop being messy, background noises, camera quality and even the pace. The videos view can show the lack of audience engagement.