The Voice: case study blog tasks

Go to the Voice homepage and answer the following:

1) What news website key conventions can you find on the Voice homepage?
The website contains different colour items on the menu bar which gives it an unprofessional look especially as it is aimed at an older audience. The homepage contains the top stories from all of the sections and contains 'picks of the day'.

2) How does the page design differ from Teen Vogue?
The Teen Vogue home page has a simplistic design with the articles and stories covering most of the page with a small menu bar at the top. The Voice's home page has a messier design and isn't as simplistic and visually appealing as Teen Vogue.

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?

Some of the items on the top menu bar such as 'opinion' reinforce ideologies the newspaper has as it was originally set up to give black britons a voice, allowing them to see the world from a black persons perspective. (Paul Gilroy). 

4) Look at the news stories in the Voice. To what extent does the selection of news stories fit Galtung and Ruge’s News Values theory?
The news stories on the Voice website fit into Galtung and Ruge's news value theory. The articles include 'familiarity' as the audience are able to relate with the story.

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.

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 items on the sub-menu bar are: health,food, fostering and adoption, female, travel, relationships, competition. This may suggest that the Voice's target audience are mainly older and possibly more targeted at females as the third item on the menu bar is 'female'.

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

"Usain Bolt: 'I don't think the UK has proper Jamaican food"

"World Aids Days: Why women's lives matter"

"Will Smith opens up about relationships with eldest son"

"10 Year old cooking sensation recognized by PETA"
"Celebrated black hairstylist inducted into hall of fame".

3) How does the Lifestyle section of the Voice differ from Teen Vogue?
The Teen Vogue lifestyle section aims at a younger audience than the Voice, featuring stories which they may find useful through'help better their life' life hack articles. However the Voice lifestyle section features more articles on celebrities and other black people who have contributed in some way to society.

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

Feature focus

1) Read this Voice Lifestyle feature on the first black photographer to shoot the cover of Vogue magazine. Why would this appeal to the Voice’s audience?This article would appeal to the Voice's audience as it features a black photographer from London and managed to make a name for herself as a Vogue photographer. It also appeals to an audience as it will empower black woman by encouraging them do the same. The audience may be able to relate to her as she comes from a similar environment as they may be in.

2) Read/watch this Lifestyle interview with The Hate U Give star Amandla Stenberg. How does the interview reflect the values and ideologies of the Voice? What do you notice about the production values of the interview?

The Voice has significantly lower production values to those of the voice as the presenter seems a little more laid back and unprofessional compared to Teen Vogue. The interview reinforces the values and ideologies of the Voice as it supports the black lives matter movement and helps give its black audience a 'voice'.

3) Read this feature on ‘buying black’ for Black Friday. What does this feature tell you about the values and ideologies behind the Voice? Does this viewpoint reflect Gilroy’s theory of the ‘Black Atlantic’ identity?
This article reinforces the values and ideologies of the Voice as it helps encourage people to buy from black-owned brands in order to re-invest funds back into the black community giving them an opportunity for them to prosper. This reinforces Gilroys' theory of Black Atlantic identity as the article encourages the audience to buy from black owned stores which have "pieces created by black people for black people".

Audience

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

The target audience of the Voice website are people aged 50+ with a 65% female and 35% male readership. The newspaper targets its audience at people in the C1,C2,DE demographic and the psychographic groups which they may be apart of are Resigned, Struggler and Reformer.

2) What audience pleasures are provided by the Voice website? Apply media theory here such as Blumler and Katz (Uses & Gratifications).
Personal Identity is provided by the Voice website as it features other like-minded people on the website which the audience can relate to. The website also provides Personal Relationships through the use of celebrity news, as well as surveillance as the website provides news articles about what is happening around the world. 

3) Give examples of content from the website that tells you this is aimed at a specialised or niche audience.
The Windrush 70 section on the menu-bar is an example of how the website is targeted at a niche 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?

The Voice was set up in the wake of the Brixton race riots and in a time of high racism. The audience may still discriminated and may come to the Voice website to "see the world through their own eyes".

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’?
"Man atttacked with acid in Stoke Newington". This is an example of citizen journalism and reinforces Clay Shirky's idea of 'end of audience' as the new digital age has allowed consumers to become producers and distributors. 

Representations

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

The audience is positioned to respond positively about the representations in the Voice website. The audiences are likely to agree with any representations shown on the website, unlike the I newspaper which allows its audience to create their own opinions and thoughts on different articles and stories.

2) Are representations in the Voice an example of Gilroy’s concept of “double consciousness” NOT applying?
It can be argued that the Voice was launched to give black audiences an opportunity to see the world through their own eyes rather than through the prism of white, often racist mainstream British media.

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?

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

Some audiences may interpret the representations of black Britons in the Voice positively as they are constantly presented as positively and articles always attempt to empower them. However some audience may interpret them in a number of ways and possbily even view them as extreme.

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 representation of women in the Voice website is quite strong as they even have their own sub section of the lifestyle section. Multiple articles help to empower woman such as the Naomi Campbell article and the "Don't touch our hair" article which defends black people's hair from those who try to 'control it'.

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?
The Voice newspaper has been targeted a niche audience who didn't have a voice. The newspaper targeted people who had been born in London and spent most of their lives there.

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? 

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.

4) How does the Voice website make money?
The Voice websites generates revenue through advertiments which are shown on the website on the right hand side. The newspaper also makes revenue through selling its product which is published every Thursday.

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 Voice's adverts and promotions are all fixed adverts. The adverts shown are 'The Voice Jobs', 'Windrush 70' and 'The Voice Dating'. all the adverts featured are linked with the 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?
Their is an element of public service and accountability journalism (Clay Shirky) found in the Voice website as it uses information gathered from the audience in their articles. It was also originally set up to give the black community a voice for them to see the world through their own eyes (Paul Gilroy).

7) What examples of technological convergence can you find on the Voice website – e.g. video or audio content?
Their is a lot of video and audio content found on the website. At least one article from each section on the website features a video or audio clip to compliment the article.

8) How has the growth of digital distribution through the internet changed the potential for niche products like the Voice?
The growth of digital distribution has allowed for small niche business such as the Voice to stay in competition with big media conglomerates such as Teen Vogue.

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 Twitter feed features a lot of celebrity content however it does not have a 'clickbait' feel as it doesn't use persuasive language to grab the consumers attention however it does have promotional tweets such as "Win a pair of tickets to an African country of your choice". The Twitter feed reinforces the the Voice's ideologies as it contains information and news about people attempting to make a difference.

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?

There is a strong contrast to Teen Vogue with significantly lower production values across of all The Voice's media platforms. The content on the YouTube channel seemed less professional with very simple video structures.