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?
different articles subscription search bar and menu bar
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 is a lot of content and news which are covered on this website
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.
news about Dave the rapper helping someone with a peanut allergy and stormzy opinions on the brands he works with this can be interesting for a person who is into rap and cares about the artist.
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 narrative theory as white people being the bad people and black people being the good
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 shows all the stories they have and are looking at in full detail and to celebrate black history month
2) What are the main stories in the Lifestyle section currently?
3) Do the sections and stories in the Voice Lifestyle section challenge or reinforce black stereotypes in British media?
challenges they don't have a correlation to anything
4) Choose two stories featured in the Lifestyle section – how do they reflect the values and ideologies of the Voice?
jollof rice this is clearly promoting black culture and heritage
black owned brand gets a deal with arsenal this is celebrating the rise of black owned business
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?
We, the Black British community continue to shape the culture and inspire innovation. It is important to understand that diversity and inclusion go hand in hand – you cannot have one without the other
2) Read this feature on The Black Pound campaign. How does this piece reflect the values and ideologies of The Voice?
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?
shows the views of the women
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?
showcasing black owned business and advertising them out to the public
2) How did Black Pound Day utilise social media to generate coverage and support?
shows big celebs on twittter
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 builds the black community and helps them grow and helps them gain a ponder of success
Audience
1) Who do you think is the target audience for the Voice website? Consider demographics and psychographics.
reformers people who like to be on going and get to chasing their dreams. But overall i think the target audience is everyone because it covers almost everything in the news
2) What audience pleasures are provided by the Voice website? Apply media theory here such as Blumler and Katz (Uses & Gratifications).
Surveillance Diversion and Personal identity
3) Give examples of sections or content from the website that tells you this is aimed at a specialised or niche audience.
a black 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?
They are trying to raise awareness of the black community itself allowing it to grow and expand
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’?
it reflects it as an end of audience as traditional media outlet wouldn't be as easily achievable
Representations
1) How is the audience positioned to respond to representations in the Voice website?
They want to portray black people in a positive light
2) Are representations in the Voice an example of Gilroy’s concept of “double consciousness” NOT applying?
Black people are viewing this in there own eyes therefore they are being bias so its not double consciousness
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 promote all black people around the world
4) Applying Stuart Hall’s constructivist approach to representations, how might different audiences interpret the representations of black Britons in the Voice?
They view black people as equals and not to be discriminated against
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.)
People other than the colour black appear if relating to the article only
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?
I decided deliberately to have a newspaper that targeted people who were born here and had spent most of their lives here," said McCalla in a rare TV interview in 1992."In doing so I had obviously captured a niche market, a market of people who had never had a voice before." The Voice, dubbed "the black Sun", has never shied away from controversy, building 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 case of Damilola Taylor, whose murder last November shocked the nation. But when another young black boy was brutally murdered in an inner-city tower block on his south London estate, the nation didn't stir, and few people aside from his grieving family and schoolfriends remember his name. For this was Wayne Taylor, just 11 years old, sexually assaulted then suffocated in February 1990 in Brixton's Somerleyton estate.
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 has bought full ownership of the Voice and Young Voices magazine from the family of Mr McCalla, who died two years ago, in an all-share deal.
4) How does the Voice website make money?
Donations adverts
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?
Set by the website and the author of the article which has been written
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?
They promote themselves and want to give the black community a voice therefore its a element of both
7) What examples of technological convergence can you find on the Voice website – e.g. video or audio content?
there are YouTube links linking the videos which u can play via the website
8) How has the growth of digital distribution through the internet changed the potential for niche products like the Voice?
Allows people to search up news rather than walking to the post office and buying a piece of news
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?
Less clickbait as they celebrate more so the black culture and diversity of themselves
10) Study a selection of videos from The Voice’s YouTube channel. What are the production values of their video content?
The videos seem homemade and has very low quality
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