OSP: 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?

Top menu 

Search Icon

Advertisements

thumbnail news stories

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?

a range of different content offering both hard news and soft news to their audiences therefore they are trying to target a wider audience. They have one section on news and every other section is soft news which suggests that they mainly offer soft news to their audience.

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. 

The story about Eubanks which is celebrating the success of someone within the black community rather than what you hear usually in mainstream news. The news story about spider man - across the spider verse is soft news which appeals to a larger audience than hard news and also celebrate the fact that the main character in the movie is black. 

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.

They are able to see themselves reflected on the website so they are offered personal identity on the website. The thumbnails are placed centrally which shows that they are what grabs the attention of the audience. The titles of the news articles don't go into detail leaving enigma codes for the audience.

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?

They present black people positively and recognise and give people within small communities a platform like the woman who adopted her kids and also celebrate successes in business like the new initiative to support black businesses

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

Financial advice

Business news

news about normal people

interviews

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

I think that it challenges the stereotypes seen in mainstream British media as often when POC are involved in news stories they are always represented differently to white people in a negative way.

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

The new initiative to support black businesses to raise awareness about the challenges that black business owners face which shows that the audience want everyone to be aware about the challenges they face and they want things to be done to help. The article on embracing the gift of adoption shows how people in the local community are doing good things which highlights the nice things that normal people do which would never be covered in mainstream British media.

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?

It says that tokenism is when an organisation gives the appearance of implementing diversity and equality but in reality nothing is achieved beyond a gesture. This applies to the voice because they have good values and present the world from the point of view of British black people rather than the mainstream news which presents them negatively. However their online presence and engagement is very low and they rely heavily on donations from the public which suggests that although there is a demand for content like this, the voice may not be doing it as effectively as they think.

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

They are promoting black businesses and raising awareness to the struggles that black business owners face 

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?

She says that more would have been done if the Grenfell tower was full of white people rather than people of colour. Grenfell is just one example of the marginalisation of black people and it invokes a shared sense of injustice in the black community of being let down and how this happens often.

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?

An event aimed at celebrating black owned businesses and giving the black community a financial and emotional boost after the protests that followed George Floyds murder.

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

It attracted support from celebrities and was trending on twitter.

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?  

It gives black people a platform to be celebrated in not just entertainment or sports fields and gives them a fairer playing field to have success and excel.

Audience

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

Mainly older people as they are not very successful on social media which suggests that they have an older audience but I think that it mainly is explorers.

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

Surveillance as it offers news stories

Personal Identity because they see themselves reflected in the stories

entertainment as there is soft news

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

they say in their bio that they are Britain's only black newspaper which shows that they know and pride themselves on being niche and giving the black community a voice and they also don't have a large social media 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?

It presents these themes in a way that isn't painting the black community in a negative way

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’?

They have opinions and competitions on their top menu which suggests that they listen to what their audience want and then base their news stories on that as well as advertisement to come work for them.

Representations

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

They are meant to align with the articles and not follow the mainstream media idea which paints  the black community in a negative way but in these articles it is the opposite and present it in a much more positive way.

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

Yes because they are celebrating the black community positively

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?

They highlight mainly soft news and positive news stories about the black community 

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

the idea that representations mirror reality in this case is positive as they are being presented positively unlike in the mainstream media

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.)

They show that they are against the things that mainstream media associates with them and you could say that it paints them negatively

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 shows that from the beginning it always had the same agenda to offer a platform and a voice for the black community

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? 

The racism continues as well as the marginalisation of the black community 

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.

They publish many other magazines which all push positive messages like the voice newspaper and they don't own very mainstream companies

4) How does the Voice website make money?

advertisements and donations

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 are fixed, some of their links do not work and they promote their own company in some of the adverts showing of effort put into it which might show that they are struggling financially.

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?

Since they have an opinion section in the top menu of the homepage it could mean that they use the audiences opinions to change or make new news articles.

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

They have a subscribe option which shows that they have diversified from print to online content

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

It has increased the demand for niche products like the voice because people want to see their lives reflected online truthfully 

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

The voice is less constructed than Taylor Swifts twitter feed however they use clickbait more often as they need to in order to gain attention

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

Very low production value, the lighting shows it is not in a professional studio setting and the setting is not high quality. The editing of the videos once again suggests that they don't have a high budget and are not using social media effectively.

A/A* Extension tasks

Read Factsheet #272 on Nationhood, Britishness and Identity. This explores the work of Paul Gilroy in more detail and will be very useful in writing about The Voice. It also has an excellent example of how to apply these ideas to a media text.

he challenges the idea of a unified British identity of ‘Britishness’ which he suggests creates antipathy towards notions of multi-culturalism. For example, even though Britain has relied heavily on immigration from post-colonial countries such as the West Indies and India to fulfil necessary labour shortages, the labelling of ‘migrant’, or 2nd generation, or even 3rd generation leads to a politics of exclusion rather than inclusivity and diversity of British identity.