The Voice - Case Study

Language and textual analysis

Homepage

Go to the Voice homepage and answer the following:

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

• Logo, Navigation bar, Buttons,  Search Bar, Visual Hierarchy with titles. 

How does the page design differ from Teen Vogue?

• The Voice homepage resembles tabloids whereas Teen Vogue takes a minimalist approach. Teen Vogue also focuses on a more equal range of content on their front page with current stories appearing larger whereas The Voice has a more political focus and some stories appear to be a few days old.

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' 'Sports' 'Entertainment' 'Faith' -  The Voice aims to communicate a wide range of aspects of Black british experiences, they want to celebrate and also bring awareness to parts of Black Identity that mainstream media fails to represent, this is seen through the range of options in the top bar. 

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.

• Windrush Scandal - Sir Trevor McDonald speaks about how the Windrush generation were treated after their arrival in the Uk and how the hostility that followed came as a great shock, this offers a candid and representative perspective on the migration of Caribbeans to the UK, one that will follow closer to actual experiences rather than complying with what the British Media would perhaps prefer to be perpetuated. 
• Public Influence Prison Sentences - This article follows the appeal of lenient prison sentences, which could see people who commit severe crimes be subjected to longer prison sentences if people feel as if their sentence wasn't harsh enough. This is particularly relevant to Black British communities, as white people have been historically given more relaxed sentences and vice versa- this new law will ensure that the judicial system is less able to influence and manipulate court sentences. 
• Why Labour is failing BAME voters - This article speaks about how the Labour party fails to be representative of BAME politicians, and how this is politically unjust especially when they have a huge following of Black voters representing the liberal voices of Black voices and calling out how the lack of representation in political spheres can hold a detriment to the BAME population. 

How is narrative used to encourage audience engagement with the Voice?

• In relation with Propp's narrative theory, The Voice switches the conventional narrative structures and subverts the hegemonic assumptions by placing Black people in the roles of both 'hero' , 'villain' and 'princess' - there are also links to Todorov's theory with the equilibrium being the racial imbalance, the disequilibrium being the education on race relations and the new equilibrium being a voice to Black Britons. 

Lifestyle section

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

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' - The voice values freedom of speech as well as opinion pieces. It also values religion and is targeting a niche audience, one that perhaps doesn't feel represented by the more generalised and neutral mainstream media. 

What are the main stories in the Lifestyle section currently?

• 'Honourees aplenty at 2019 Black Magic Awards' , Doreen Lawrence reassured race played no part in the firefighters response, Springboks make history, Whitney Houston's best friend confirms love affair. 

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

• The lifestyle section of The Voice takes a far more 'tabloid' approach, whereas Teen Vogue's minimalist composition and relevant articles zones in on pop culture and conventional superficiality of fashion magazines, the voice has a political approach and a stress on providing information that directly impacts the Afro-Caribbean british audience. 

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

• The sections and stories in the Voice Lifestyle section challenge Black stereotypes usually perpetuated by the British mainstream media. Conventionally, British newspapers choose to represent Black people as criminals, uneducated or heavily working class and as morally ambiguous in contrast to the celebratory and dynamic representations that the Voice offers. 

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

• Representation of women - Saweetie
• Mental Health Awareness - Black Identity
• 10 inspirational quotes from powerful Black women

These reflect the celebratory tone of the voice, and contribute to the redefinition of Black identity in the media. There's also a focus on how race has influenced other aspects of representation such as femininity and how we as a society define Mental Illness and contribute to the stigmatisation of Mental Illness within minority communities. 

Feature focus

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 story reflects the Voice's encouragement of Black people standing up for themselves and voicing their opinions on political influences as well as critiquing establishments who may be easily coerced into unethical behaviour. The comments below place Lawrence in a stereotypical position as a 'Villain', in reference to Propp's character theory, this links to Gilroy's theory of the Black Atlantic as the disconnect of Black communities within Britain lead to Lawrence to connect the obvious relaxed approach to issues that face BAME communities to the Grenfell tragedy.

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 video celebrates successful Black women within industries in which they are underrepresented. The production values are extremely amateur, with the lack of sound quality and poor framing taking away from the valuable content of the video. 

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?

• The Voice aims to subvert the usual negative, and demonising stories about Black people that plague the media sphere and rather celebrate the young Black people that are doing exceptional things. 

Audience

Who do you think is the target audience for the Voice website? 

• Afro-Caribbean Britons, C2, between the ages of 35-50+
• Struggler - tabloid, lower educated, working class 
• Reformer, Aspirer - Celebratory and Educated opinion pieces

What audience pleasures are provided by the Voice website? 

• Personal Identity - Grenfell, Successful Black people within media industries and the education system
• Surveillance - discusses politics, racism and oppression within politics as well as supplying news
• Gilroy - offers an authentic and celebratory depiction of Black experience within Britain as well as having historical significance 

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

• There is a clear media focus - 'How to start a podcast and influence people' , as well as a lot of articles relating to the history of Afro-Caribbean Britons such as the aforementioned 'Windrush' article and a wide range of advertising material. 

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 political, historical and racism focused features in The Voice are significant to the audience as their is historical significance in the issues featured. Political unrest and the lack of representation is something that has been prevalent within Black communities in the UK before the Voice was established- just prior to the beginning of the newspaper, the Brixton riots occurred which were a significant event in Black history especially for Black Britons. Those who fought during the Brixton riots would fall in the age bracket of those the Voice target today.

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’?

• Many of the opinion pieces are written by citizen journalists, this suggests that the Voice has a priority of presenting Black experience from a citizen perspective rather than from a hierarchical perspective. They want to display authentic Black experience, rather than a third party account of important events and political discourse.

Representations

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

• The audience is positioned to acknowledge the previous representations and agree with the criticisms. The audience could however reject these new representations as the authenticity could be called into question depending on their own personal politics, however majority of the audience can recognise the genuinity of the representations and apply their own personal beliefs as well as the Voices to respect and commend the subversion to the prior racistly motivated representations. 

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

• They offer a genuine representation of all aspects of Black experience, leaving no room for White, media dominated influence and thus in theory being a relatable and non constructivist approach to Black identity. 

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 that come from all around the globe, with advertisements referencing sending money back to countries they've potentially migrated from as well as emphasising the theme of displacement through consistent reminders of systematic oppression and institutionalised racism in politics as well as the article that references how Black people's place as the societal 'other' has influenced the way we view Mental Health. 

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

• Audiences that have had similar trials and tribulations will interpret the representations as positive as highlighting the success stories, the political unrest and other significant news stories gives Black people a voice, however other members of the audience may see it as a glorification of Black identity rather than a news source and find the positive and uplifting messages as out of touch and not having a substantial impact on social change due to the low interaction numbers. Finally, the opposed reading, would be that the lack of integration of racial stories actually adds to the isolation of Black britons and could perhaps add to the concept of Black people as an 'other' within the mainstream media sphere. 

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.)

• There are positive and progressive representations of women, particularly Black women as well as women who are perhaps older than many mainstream magazines represent. British Culture is also represented as flawed however positives are outlined. 

Industries

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 original ideologies were about creating a sense of community and raising awareness about Black issues and their values were extremely anti-establishment, with focuses on combating institutionalised racism and societal oppression. 

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 issues raised that are still relevant are racism, high unemployment rates, and clear racial prejudice within our society. 

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?

• Youthlink, Western Focus, The Flair, The Financial Gleaner, The Weekly Gleaner [UK] - The Voice offers an alternative, Black-centric perspective which fits with the general ethos of Gleaner's media brands.

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

• The voice make money through asking for donations and selling advertising space. I think that asking for donations is a sustainable way to keep a media institution running, with the people donating to smaller publications helping to diversify the media climate rather than allowing the power to be placed in the hands of the conglomerates that monopolise the industry such as Hearst and Conde Nast. 

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 features a lot of fixed adverts, usually surrounding sending money to other countries or other generalised travel/recruitment adverts. This shows is amateurish as the ads are hardly targeted and the effectiveness will suffer as a result.

Is there an element of public service to the Voice’s role in British media or is it simply a vehicle to make profit?

• The Voice is vital to providing a voice to the community that lacks one in British mainstream media, their profits are unknown and as a small business although profit is vital for survival I believe the main aspect is providing authentic representation for Black Britons. 

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

• Video Ads, Youtube Videos, Tweets with exclusive interviews. 

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

• It has added potential for niche products such as the Voice since it increases outreach as well as creating more chance for digital discourse surrounding the news outlet. It is easier for people to share stories and discuss content online rather than traditional print alternatives. 

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?

• There's a high density of Clickbait titles however The Voice is disproportionate when it comes to interactive tweets and replies to promotion of articles and the use of images/videos on their feed. This contrasts the usual proportion of many media conglomerates as audience interactivity is crucial to prolonged commercial success online. 

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?

• The Voice is significantly less better in quality and the content is far more surveillance based rather than Teen Vogues mixture of entertainment and informative content. The production values create a stark difference between the two companies and the content however both hold the same potential to spread awareness and celebrate people who may not have mainstream support but Teen Vogue is arguably more successful through their Youtube Channel.