The Voice CSP

The Voice CSP: case study blog tasks

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?

Different categories

Subheading

Multiple news stories

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?

• News
• Sport
• Lifestyle
• Entertainment
• Competitions
• Opinion
• Faith

They tell us that there'll be a wide variety of content, and that you'll be able to find something catered towards you. It also tells us that The Voice encourages people to get themselves out there as the item OPINIONS suggests that multiple conversations between the community online are held there, and the item COMPETITIONS suggests that that item in particular serves as a way to have creative people get their names out into the public.

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.

1: Black parent-child experiences of racism affect whole family’s mental health, new study

• Covered how black families felt worried about their own safety after the 2021 Euro Final. Their target audience (black brits) could've probably related to this situation, as a vast majority would enjoy football.
• Also covers the topic of mental health, most common now in teenagers regardless of skin colour or ethnicity.

2: Black Gen Z under pressure to ‘code-switch’ at work, study finds

• The target audience that The Voice  hopes for is Gen Z, so they'll be able to related to this to some extent.

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.

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 WELLBEING
• RELATIONSHIPS
• TRAVEL

Suggests that The Voice's audience wants to better themselves, and that they are aspirers. This is because the sub-menus suggest that they include posts that would give you tips to better yourself or things to do. 

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?

I feel like they challenge them, as they don't show anything explicitly stereotypical.

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

1: Disrupting hair discrimination at work

- calling for action

- covering what main news sources are afraid to report

- allowing others with similar situations to speak out

2: My abusive white partner used my race against me - A survivors story

- Justice for Black Britons going through the same situation

- covering what mainstream news is afraid/reluctant to cover

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 Black British tech community has been overlooked in the past. About 4% of the tech force are Black, and a lot more needs to be done to tackle the diversity gap here in the UK. People who push for diversity in spaces that have been occupied and dominated by the same faces may have good intentions. But it runs the risk of tokenism. Embracing a bold, Black British future in the tech industry means giving our community the opportunity to thrive and flourish in an environment where authenticity and talent is appreciated and celebrated. We, the Black British community continue to shape the culture and inspire innovation. It is important to understand that diversity and inclusion go hand in hand – you cannot have one without the other. It’s time to start challenging our workplaces to do better and work towards a more inclusive environment at all levels.

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

The creation of the distinctive ‘Black Pound’ coin has been made possible through a partnership between Black Pound Day, the largest Black-led economic movement in the history of the UK, and Wray & Nephew, a renowned Jamaican rum brand. These two entities share a common objective: to boost consumer spending and foster greater overall support for Black-owned enterprises. The ‘Black Pound’ coin is envisioned as a daily reminder in people’s wallets, urging them to shop at and patronise Black businesses. Although the limited-edition coin is not considered legal tender, it will be made available at no cost to consumers who demonstrate their support at Black Pound Day’s two Westfield stores, which proudly showcase a curated collection of over 150 Black businesses. The launch of the ‘Black Pound’ initiative marks an important milestone in recognising the unique challenges faced by Black business owners and entrepreneurs in the UK.

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? 

Speaking to Channel 4 News last week, Lady Lawrence said: “Had that been a block full of white people in there, they would have done everything to get them out as fast as possible and make sure that they do what they needed to do.” She added: “Nobody wanted to mention the word ‘race’ in the whole thing. [Because] when I saw the residents who lived in that block, to me it was under no doubt around the racism that existed at that time.” 

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 businesses and giving the Black community a financial and emotional boost, after the anger at racial inequality in the UK evident by the protests that followed Floyd's death.

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

Black Pound Day encourages people to spend locally or online with Black-owned businesses and invest in communities that have been historically economically disadvantaged. The inaugural Black Pound Day attracted support from high-profile celebrities and quickly became the top-trending topic on Twitter in the UK. Now a regular event, it encourages Britons from all backgrounds to buy products or services 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?

Following its June 2020 launch, several businesses shared on social media how they had experienced their biggest growth in sales after the event. Black Pound Day not only highlighted issues of systemic inequality in the UK, it held up a mirror to a major shift in how Black Britons supported Black-owned businesses. Among those who spoke about its impact was London-based company The Jerk Kitchen. Run by Natalie Din- ning, the company was started by her father Neil in 2006. The Jerk Kitchen won hundreds of dedicated repeat customers before moving into other areas of business including produc- ing a range of sauces called Lesley's, named after her mother. 'When I first heard about it, I was intrigued' Dinning told The Voice

Audience

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

Intentions: Young teenagers to adults.

Actuality: Members of the Black British community from the 80s-90s.

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

The audience receive news they want, or well the important news that channels don't cover

The extra tabs at the front allow the audiences to pick news catered towards their wants/needs. 

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

Faith

Opinion

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's target audience may have experienced or are experiencing some sort of oppression

Representations

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

To respond with a bias opinion or to challenge dominant opinions.

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

"HEALTH AND WELLBEING SPONSORED: Answers on vaccines" is one of the main instances of double consciousness not applying.

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?

People on the rise of being popular or a well known name, or those who have done great things for the black British community.

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

Different audiences might view these representations as stereotypical or too forced.

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.)

In my opinion, not really. The representations are justified and quite clear cut. The Taskbar at the top of the website help validate this.

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?

Born in Jamaica, McCalla trained as an accountant at Kingston College, moved to London in the 1970s and started working on leftwing newspaper the East End News, where he helped edit a double-page spread called the Voice aimed at black readers. He had the idea of expanding the column into a weekly title for black Britons and in 1982 founded the Voice newspaper. The paper and the mini publishing empire that grew up around it quickly came to be regarded as a pillar of the black community in Britain and made McCalla a millionaire. 

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?

New Nation editor Michael Eboda says: "The Voice is bought out of habit - people have always bought it. But if you compare it with what we put out, it has shoddy news features, no lifestyle element, and few human interest stories."

Looking at the two papers, it's difficult to disagree: this week both papers splashed on interviews with Richard Williams, father of tennis stars Venus and Serena. But whereas the New Nation ran with the uplifting headline "My girls are black and proud", the Voice had the somewhat cruder "I do not kiss arse".

Where the New Nation has a sharp, snappy look with plenty of colour and variety of type, the Voice has a ropey layout, absurdly blown-up quotes, photos obviously flipped and a sloppy mix-up over picture captions.

Where the New Nation had an exclusive on poet Benjamin Zephaniah which was followed up by several other newspapers, the Voice had... well, nothing really worth following up.

Eboda says: "The Voice does a lot more racism-based stories - maybe it's because they came out of the 1981 riots. But people now want to know what's going on in the mainstream community that will affect them."

Henry Bonsu is a radio presenter on BBC London Live and held a recent phone-in about the black press. "People felt it was out of touch with its potential readership," he says. "And the Voice no longer has a captive audience - especially now that the national newspapers are far more willing to do stories of minority interest."

One example of this is the case of Damilola Taylor, whose murder last November shocked the nation. But when another young black boy was brutally murdered in an inner-city tower block on his south London estate, the nation didn't stir, and few people aside from his grieving family and schoolfriends remember his name. For this was Wayne Taylor, just 11 years old, sexually assaulted then suffocated in February 1990 in Brixton's Somerleyton estate. And when he died no one in the national press cared for the life of a young black boy. He may have shared his surname with Damilola, but his photograph never made the pages of a single national newspaper. None even interviewed his parents. Even the Guardian, which at least gave it some coverage, could muster only one 37-word agency report.

But Wayne's death came before the justice campaign by the parents of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, which changed everything. And last week's coverage of the drowning of schoolgirl Bunmi Shagaya highlighted this new interest in black affairs yet again.

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.

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.

The buyer publishes six titles in Jamaica, including The Gleaner, which was first published in 1834 and is the oldest newspaper in the Caribbean.

4) How does the Voice website make money?

From online advertisements

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 seen in The Voice's website are complete fixed adverts, and what's shocking is the fact that the adverts have no correlation to what The Voice stands for. It tell us that The Voice lacks in Website professionality.

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?

I think there's a bit of both elements, as The Voice is a voice for Black British news or news that isn't covered by major news outlets. However the fact that they've been around since the 80s gives of the impression that its been running just to collect money.

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

Video content relating to big names, newcomers, or just major things happening in the community

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

It's given them more free space to work with, and the opportunity to do something different to other niche products. Digital distribution is constantly growing meaning that there's always going to be ways to boost your products' popularity

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?

Compared to Zendaya's twitter profile, The Voice doesn't really take time to explain the reasonings for posts and includes little detail to what their posts are about. They seem to just generally cover a topic, whereas Zendaya's twitter is managed my higher ups who have to take posts into consideration.

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

Their production value is really terrible. In one instance the quality is off, and it is clear to the viewer that this wasn't planned - the video is filmed in an untidy classroom and little to no editing is used.