The voice blog work

The Voice: case study blog tasks

Language and textual analysis

Homepage

Go to the Voice homepage and answer the following:

1) What news website key conventions can you find on the Voice homepage?
The placement of the logo 'The Voice' - upper left of the page
The main navigation - News, Sport, Lifestyle, Entertainment, Faith, Opinions, Video, Publications, More - it gives the audience to move around on the website

Uses serif font - shows simplicity 

2) How does the page design differ from Teen Vogue?
Teen vogue is more modernised with little advertisement and portrays more of celebrity faces that a well known 

3) 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?

It has a wide variety 

4) Look at the news stories on The Voice homepage. Choose three stories and discuss how they have presented the news from an angle or perspective that reflects The Voice's role as a voice for black Britons.

people reporting many popular news such as reports of Cardi B's offset break.

5) 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.

Engima codes because as there are headlines, they use direct questions.

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?

Education, diet, promotion and adoption, travel and relationships. It means that their audience is open-minded and do not obey the ideals of tradition when they talk of adoption.

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

-Essex lorry deaths: Diane Abbott calls for safe and legal routes for refugees 
-Rory Stewart under fire for calling black men ' minor gangsters'

3) How does the Lifestyle section of the Voice differ from Teen Vogue?

Teen Vogue focuses on empowering women, while Voice reports on news and current affairs around the world.

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

I feel it questions it because, instead of reinforcing stereotypes, they better portray black people.

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

Feature focus

1) 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 perspectives reflect the philosophies and beliefs of the Voice as a black lady is viewed in a positive light that the voice encourages people to do as they wish to give their audience a voice.

2) Read/watch this Lifestyle feature about the Black Magic Awards. How do the article and video content reflect the values and ideologies of the Voice? What do you notice about the production values of the video interviews?

The Voice was introduced to provide an overview for black audiences to see the world through their own hands, rather than through the lens of white, frequently racist British media. This quality is synonymous with,' Black Magic Awards ' being portrayed as black women who are motivated rather than misrepresented by the press

3) Read this feature about the Young, Gifted and Black Awards. What does this story suggest regarding how The Voice is trying to change the representation of black people in British media? 

Instead of having negative, frequently racist stereotypes of black people in the media, this storey attempts to make young black people have a positive perspective about black people.

Audience

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

The Voice consists mainly of British Black people, usually African-Caribbean backgrounds.

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

   Surveillance and personal identification 

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

Aimed at the black audience of all the publications published, it focuses primarily on storeys related to the 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?

it might resonate their past stories being riots like the Mark duggan or the Brixton riots.

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 quality of the output of the Voice and its production values is expressed in the notion of mass amatuerisation

Representations

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

The audience is in a position to give a positive response.

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

The results are optimistic and give black people trust

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?

Giving the British black community a voice.

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

The Voice creates awareness for black British people and the struggles they face, as well as the success storeys they've found in the media. It enables solidarity with the black community to be created

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.)

it does not show any white person in the voice website which is very noticeable and interesting

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? 

To give Black Britains a voice, but they've adapted to modern technological culture

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? 

As many people say, the main problem with the Voice is its founder, McCalla. He failed to invest in his core product during the boom years of the journal, instead wasting resources on a string of failed projects as he sought to realise his original media mogul status vision. Hundreds of thousands of pounds went to magazines, record labels, satellite TV companies and other newspapers.

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.

The Gleaner company also owns ' The Weekly Gleaner ' which carries interesting news for West Indians in the UK

4) How does the Voice website make money? What is your opinion of the 'asking for donations' approach that The Voice is now using?

Advertisement

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?

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?

There is a public service dimension since surveys and questionnaires are used

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

an example of technological convergence is that the voice has its on youtube channel which produces content

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

It enabled the Voice to reach a larger audience which helped them target their niche audience

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

The Voice's twitter feed has much more clickbait than Teen Vogue's twitter feed.

10) Study a selection of videos from the Voice’s YouTube channel. How does this content differ from Teen Vogue? What are the production values of their video content?
Have very low production values and tend to be shot and produced by non-professionals.