The Voice CSP: case study blog tasks

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 bar: range of content such as 'hard' and 'soft' news to appeal to target audience.
• Subscription icon: Diversification/convergence -> print media to online content stay in the loop uses + gratification -> sense of surveillance information gained
• Advertisements: marketing jobs for target audience ad for book on the history of The Voice -> example of product placement
• Variety of thumbnails offer content linked to top menu bar (hard + soft news) feature/represent the black community 
• Images centrally placed to grab target audience's attention. Attempt to hold interest through digital content (clickbait)

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?

• Drop down from top-menu bar 
• uses + gratifications - diversion
• Target audience able to engage with content away from news 
• collection of interest areas that is celebrating/highlighting black culture + identity.

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. 

"Chris Kaba’s family vow to fight on after officer acquitted of his murder" This story links to their target audience as well as black people as its standing it up with BAME community, as well as as it informs them about the discrimination faced by other black people even in positions of power.

"Kemi Badenoch wins conservative party leadership race" This might appeal to the target audience as it keeps them informed of the political state of the UK and the state of the conservative party.

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.

The titles give enigma codes to make the audiences more curious and so they engage with the posts more. 

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 menu for the lifestyle section features topics ranging from fashion to food this suggests that they want their audience to celebrate black people in Britain and discover things more targeted towards them instead of the mainstream media which generally targets white audiences.

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

"Don't let your pride get in the way of your health: Marcus' Grohn's story" (Health & wellbeing sponsored)

"African history is world history" (Community edducation lifestyle)

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

They challenge the media stereotypes and discriminations of black people but instead they stand up with them and mention more stories naturally and more positively. 

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

"90-second Jollof rice? Meji Foods has got you covered" - promoting black owned business that is selling a product that originates from Africa.

"British African heritage brand make history at Arsenal" - collaboration between LABRUM London, Arsenal and adidas making history by holding a first of its kind runway show pitch side at Arsenal's Emirates stadium.

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 uplifts black voices and shares the achievements of black people working in the tech industry where they are in the minority and often discriminated against because of that.

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

This piece is helping to raise awareness about the challenges confronted by Black business owners and how a Jamaican rum brand has started a new initiative -the 'black pound'- in order to help black business owners who are less likely to gain funding through other ways.

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?

This piece showcases Doreen Lawrence's view that discrimination against the people inside Grenfell tower during the fire and the responses given by other people in power towards what she says. The comments have a variety of different people either agreeing with what she had to say or condemning her for her beliefs as they have a different view of the events and they believe that the fire fighters did everything they could in order to stop the fire.

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 anger at racial inequalicy in the UK evident by the protests that followed Floyd's death.

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

They were endorsed by high-profile celebrities and became a hot topic 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?  

Events like these aim to give disadvantaged people similar experiences to those who come from more privileged positions then them, they also help to bring the black community closer as they uplift each other and work together.

Audience

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

Black Britons of all ages, additionally I think that they mainly target Reformers, Aspirers and explorers however due to the wide range of content that they post it could potentially appeal to all of them which is probably what they intend.

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

Surveillance - keeping themselves informed about current events.

Diversion - Lifestyle section can be used as a form of entertainment

Personal identity - identifying with some of the articles they read

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

When opening the home page of the website all of the articles focus on Black news.

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 started in order to boost black voices in a predominantly white dominated industry, this fact still holds true to this day which could resonate with their target audience as The Voice is still one of the only places which portrays events through a black lens.

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’?

The content being produced about Chris Kaba is shaped by protests and online opinions where people are showing their disapproval on the events that occurred, this reflects Shirky's work on the "end of audience" as the opinions being posted by people online is reflecting a traditional media outlet which wouldn't have been as easily achievable in the past.

Representations

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

The audience is positioned to respond positively to the representations in The Voice as they portray Black people in a positive light which contrasts with mainstream media that might not be as positive.

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

I think that The Voice is an example of Gilroy's concept of "double consciousness" not applying as the articles are being produced by other black people and so they are not viewing themselves through the lens of white people.

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 black people from all over the world, this is an example of the liquidity of culture as they find pride in all black people and not just those from certain countries

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

The voice intends for people to preferably view black Britons as equals and for them to not be discriminated against based on their race or cultural backgrounds.

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.)

White people seem to mostly only appear when they are related to a recent event or when The Voice is calling them out for their previous wrongdoings.

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 tells us that he wanted to give a voice to people who previously never had a voice representing them in mainstream media, it has also built up a reputation for campaigning against racism and injustice.

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 voice is facing increasing competition from other news outlets that also target the same niche audience causing the voices sales to slump as they are no longer the sole news outlet speaking out on behalf of minorities.

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.

GV media group own Gleaner UK and free newspaper Extra from its south London headquarters, and has five titles in the US and Canada because they are looking to expand more overseas and to better serve their readers of the diaspora.

4) How does the Voice website make money?

The Voice website makes money through advertisements, book sales, subscription, and donations through pay pal

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?

You can find promotion for their book and job vacancies but you can also find adverts for Crohns & Coltis UK and Durham university, I think that these are fixed adverts as they are the only ones available on the website. This tells us that The Voice's website is technologically behind as a majority of websites use adverts based on the user's cookies in order to target them more specifically compared to fixed adverts.

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?

I believe that there is an element of public service to The Voice's role in British media as they are barely making enough to continue running and have to rely on audience donations in order to keep running, additionally the use of fixed ads might mean that they only want to endorse specific companies or causes and do not want to promote someone who does not have the same beliefs as them.

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

There are videos that can be played from the website and link to youtube in order to promote their other social media

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

Being online makes it a lot easier to reach the target audience as they are able to stumble upon the content organically instead of having to go out of their way to find the content

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 Voice's twitter feed doesn't get much engagement when compared to other twitter accounts with a similar number of followers frequently only achieving less than 100 likes with only a few of their more popular posts achieving numbers in the thousands. The voice also attempts to use clickbait in order to get users to visit their website to view their full website.

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

The production value of the YouTube videos seem very low and amateurish with low quality equipment being used as all of their videos are capped at 720p meaning that they are using older cameras as most modern day cameras even on phones can record in 1080p. Furthermore they do not have any equipment to help with background noise leaving it all in the video making them feel even more amateurish. Additionally they do not put much effort into the thumbnails of their videos frequently taking a still frame from the video and just putting their logo in the corner, this shows that they might not care about their youtube channel and that it might not be their biggest priority.