The Voice CSP

The Voice CSP: case study blog tasks

Language and contexts

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, 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?

-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. 

-Chris Kabas death from a black community perspective-the media presents his death honestly without any type of racial discrimination.

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.

-Enigma codes are applied by audience questioning how there's no justice for Chris due to the system and his race. 

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?

-Fashion and beauty, food, health and well-being, relationships, and travel- this suggests that their audience are older adults that most likely work 9-5's.

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

-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?

-British African heritage brand make history at Arsenal- pushing black people and african culture on the map in different indistrues.

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 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?

-It gives back owned business' the platform to advertise their services and supports them buy providing a range of workshop and masterclasses.

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 the discrimination and racism that were present in the British culture during the Grenfell tower incident.

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 business and giving the black community a financial and emotionally boost, after the anger at racial inequality in the UK by the protest that followed George Floyd's death.

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

-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?  

-It encourages the challenge the of power dynamics by promoting black owned business and brings a spotlight on racial wealth gaps.

Audience

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

-Young adults and middle ages people from african, Caribbean heritage, reformers and succeeders.

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

-Diversification and surveillance as the newspaper not only informs its target audience put presents a entertainment like the lifestyle section.

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

-News section when opened shows top stories, all 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?

-Their target audience may feel misrepresented or underrepresented by mainstream news, history and politics so this is where they get their news from.

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’?

-Clay Shirky's end of an audience is shown clearly in the Voice becuase 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.

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

-The Voice represents black culture.

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?

-Black and British culture is both present in the Voice and we can clearly see this through the music shown.

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

-Black Britons will have an intentional approach and feel empowered from all the accomplishments they have achieved.

-White- non black audiences will have a constructivist approach because they may have their own biases and assumptions.

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 representations of women: constantly shows black women in leadership roles.

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 was created to represent black communities by 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 newspaper has many more racism stories over the years.

4) How does the Voice website make money?

-Through 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 contain display adverts that attract consumers attention and this helps them to target a wider audience.

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?

-Yes,becuase it mainly focuses only on British news and culture.

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

-Video content like interviews, podcast features, and social media links like Instagram posts.

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

-It has made it easier for media companies to reach a wider audience as they now have access to global audiences.

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?

-Their page has much lower numbers of followers at 54.3K compared to Taylor Swift who has a much bigger number of followers on her twitter page.

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

-They have very low budget productions,we can see this for example through their camera quality etc.