The Voice

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?

They have the different categories of news offering a range of genres.

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?

Sports, relationship and lifestyle, and entertainment such as art & culture and film/TV. Even though this was set up for black people due to racial and political differences, this doesn't really promote or suggest political values or ideologies. Perhaps due to the business section there could be a suggestion of capitalism. 

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. 

• BAME elderly patients feel that they have not been respected and talked down to.
• Black woman arrested on suspicion of bus fare evasion.

Might target their audience as they aim to a black audience so these would be issues which directly impact them (Blumler and Katz: Uses and Gratifications Theory - Personal identity).

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.

• Todorov - Black people, who are the audience, are portrayed to be in the state of disequilibrium e.g. article stating Black patients are talked down to by the NHS.
• Barthes - What the different things talked about in some articles are and how they effect Black people e.g. article looking into the effect that the covid vaccine has on black people.
• Levi-Strauss - Black people vs the police e.g. article talking about the Croydon bus fare arrest and there is an investigation happing with the officer.
• Propp - Black people, who are the audience, are seen as the princess in distress and the hero is The Voice, as suggested by the name, giving a voice to the unheard Black diaspora. The white dominated media companies are seen as the villains e.g. We are talked down to, Strawberry Slavery. 

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 & Beauty
• Food
• Health & Wellbeing
• Relationships
• Travel

This is more aimed at a female audience due to all the fashion and relationship advice it offers, which targets women as majority are materialistic and want the 'ideal' look.

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

• GP practices are evolving to ensure top-quality care tailored to your needs
• Answers on vaccines
• Beats and Bands, where 'Litness meets Fitness'
• Clive Lacelle Dwyer thanks mum for the grit

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

The subvert stereotypes of black people as normal representations of black people in the media would be gang members, thiefs, uneducated and violent. However, these news stories subvert these stereotypes as they are showing black people as doctors, cooks and sports and fitness stars. 

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

The racist AI story and the story on Vaccines show the activism side of The Voice showing how they were established to raise awareness and give a voice to the black community.

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?

The writer is talking about how there needs to be diversity in the tech industry, raising awareness for all the black people who have and are coming up with great technological advancements.

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

It talks about how black business owners struggle more than their non-black counterparts and this article goes through the Black Pound campaign which is set up to encourage consumers to buy at black businesses. 

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?

The ideologies of The Voice is a platform of activism, giving a voice to the unheard black diaspora. This article shows how Doreen Lawrence is suggesting that racism was a factor in why not much was done for the Grenfell Tower disaster. The people in the comment section totally disagreed with what she had said suggesting how insensitive it was due to the risks firefighter put their lives in. This links to the Black Atlantic linking towards slavery showing how black people were/are seen as inferior. 

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 done by Swiss which celebrates Black-owned bussiness and giving the black community a financial and emotional boost due to the anger of the racial conflict following George Floyd's death.  

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

Several businesses shared how this event let them experience the biggest growth in sales after the events. Adverts and posts were put on social media. 

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? 

Eboda who was in charge of the Powerlist Black Excellence Awards was able to make the award more well known as he had contacts within the government so was able to get the then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown. This helped it gain more publicity. Black people who were influential in their sector were barley known until this award was established.   

Audience

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

• Demographics - B,C1, C2, black people of any genders
• Psychographics - Aspirers, explorers, people who engage in activism 

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

Personal identity - Black people would be able to relate to the stories told in this than  

Personal relationships - Audiences might create a bond with some of the subjects in the articles and therefore read other follow up articles on that specific person.

Diversion - Some stories might offer escapism for the audience as they enjoy them and so takes them to a different world.

Surveillance - The Voice offers a range of different hard and soft news such as the world news and business and lifestyle.

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

A lot of the articles are aimed and include events or things which effect the black community, who make up 4.2% of the UK population so is a very small audience compared to other global products. 

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 was established in 1982 and was aimed for the Black audience. This is because during this time there was a lot of racial discrimination towards people of colour and there was an issues of the population overcrowding, 'swamping' as described by the then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

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’?

A young black boy was hosting a music competition to 'uplift' the youth. This shows the end of audience as it is showing the entrepreneurial effect that audiences are having nowadays. 

Representations

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

The representations in The Voice subvert the usual stereotypes of Black people as thieves, gang members and uneducated and instead offers a positive representation of Black people being Doctors, chefs, fitness icons, business entrepreneur etc. This therefore allows black people, who are the audience, to see themselves through their own eyes and not the false white dominated media companies.

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

Yes, as The Voice are showing how the Black culture is influencing the wester cultures e.g. through the food category in the lifestyle section.

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 section of food and the destination prizes on the competition section show the liquidity in culture as it shows the influence of the culture back from home has on the culture over here in the UK and the prizes to go back to their root countries. 

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

Other audiences might view Black Britons as educated, wealthy and business entrepreneurs, which would be a different representation of what is usually seen in the white dominated media. So this offers them a different representation and viewpoint.

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.)

No, it is mainly aimed at a black audience so doesn't include much of other representations.

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? 

Original ideology of The Voice was a left-wing newspaper used for anti-racism and giving a voice to the niche market who had never had one.

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? 

• Race riots - BLM movement after death of George Floyd.
• Circulation to audience is low - they don't have a big audience group.

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 already have the Weekly Gleaner UK and free newspaper Extra. They state they have been "looking consistently to expand our presence overseas" and that acquiring The Voice and and its Young voices magazine gives them a "golden opportunity to better serve our readers of the diaspora".

4) How does the Voice website make money?

By selling spaces on their website for other companies to advertise.

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?

There aren't many adverts on The Voice which suggests that due to having low audience numbers, other companies wouldn't want to advertise on that website as it would be a waste on their advertising budget that they are spending. 

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?

No as a public service would offer a range of different news stories aiming to more mainstream audiences and having more diversity. However The Voice is aimed at a only Black niche audiences so is more of a product for profit.

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

As well as having their newspaper articles on their website, they also have their own YouTube channel which they post videos on and also published a book to celebrate 40 years of The Voice.

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

It has changed the way of distribution as The Voice now post articles or news headlines on social media, their website or videos on YouTube.

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 do have a much more authentic and original feeling to it as they have to due to being a media company which sells news, however there is a big contrast between The Voice and Zendaya as Zendaya has much more followers and more audience interactions compared to The Voice as they haven't got a lot of followers and has less comments, reposts and likes than other companies.

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

They have a low production value as they have interviews with low value or time put into the editing, having jump cuts with more informal font styles, they also have little effort put into their mise-en-scene, having green screens and low quality of camera view.