OSP: The Voice CSP

 Go to the Voice homepage and answer the following:

1) What news website key conventions can you find on the Voice homepage?

Adverts, Video thumbnails, product placement, menu bar, Subscription service

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, audiences are given a variety that can divert them from current news such as interesting cultural events involving and celebrating black culture. This tells us that they aim to keep viewers intertwined with all things relating to the culture to make sure everything is given the recognition it deserves in todays society.

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. 

Malcom Xs family suing the government for his death and how UK mental health bills aim to address racial disparities. These both appeal to their target audience due to the fact of how influential both stories are in creating the society we live in today, with Malcom Xs human rights campaigning and how the overall impact of mental health on a person being taken more seriously.

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.

Barthes enigma codes is used with some headings news articles that contain a question as the title, making audiences consider the question overall as they read on.

Lifestyle section

Now analyse the Lifestyle section of the Voice and answer the following:

website blocked come back to later

1) What are the items in the sub-menu bar for the Lifestyle section and what does this suggest about the Voice audience?

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?

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

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?

This highlights the success black representation have had in the tech industry by also highlighting how much of a minority it truly is.

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

This piece highlights the struggles small business owners of the black ethnicity struggle in order to promote their business for customers and potential funding.

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 post highlights the dicrimintation of certain occupents in the grenfell tower disaster and how firefighters prioritised different people.

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?

Black Pound Day is an event aimed at celebrating Black-owned businesses and giving the black community a financial and emotional boost.

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

High profile endorsements and a large twitter following.

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.

Audience

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

I think the primary target for the voice website is any member of the black community no matter the age or where theyre from. This is due to the highlighting of achievements that wouldnt be given coverage anywhere else, showing the black community things they want to see and should be seeing.

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

Diversion - Lifestyle section

Personal identity - the relatability that comes with reading certain articles.

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 site visitors are immediately exposed to brand new 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?

Some readers may feel some relatability when talking about issues faced and would lead them to feeling not alone as they have a place where they feel like they can feel related to.

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’?

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 are positioned to respond well as theyre being shown what they want to see instead of irrelavent stories or news.

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

Theyre not applying as these are being written by another black person and therefore lack any white interpretation or influence.

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 aims to highlight how black people key to society and the different things they provide for the world, therefore leading to all audiences feeling happy to read something positive.

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 never really appear unless its talking about how a white person has called them out for something.

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? 

He wanted to give a voice to people who previously never had a voice representing them in mainstream media.

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 younger generations are seeming to use the voice less and less.

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 Mr McCalla's wife, Linda, and son, Michael, agreed to the sale this week, allowing the Gleaner group to expand operations outside the West Indies. The group already runs the Weekly Gleaner UK and free newspaper Extra from its south London headquarters, and has five titles in the US and Canada.

4) How does the Voice website make money?

Adverts, funding and donations.

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?

Adverts are typically focused on voice based products such as a book celebrating 40 years of the company. This tells us that the main audience are members of the older generations as its much more likely that theyll purchase a book over younger people.

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?

It can be argued that because it doesn't have a mainstream following, the reason for its continued existence is to provide a British Black perspective on the media celebrating and acknowledging that culture.

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

linked videos in articles.

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

Its much easier to find things on the internet that real life, making it much more likely that someone new will stumble across the site.

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?

There arent many elements of clickbait as posts are made purely to show off what members of the lack commnuity can do and celebrate those things, not make money.

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

The production level on videos appears to be quite low. This is potentially to highlight the fact that theyre a niche company to new viewers.