The Voice: case study blog tasks

Language and textual analysis

Homepage

1) News website key conventions:
  • Title
  • Section bar
  • Social media 
  • Trending stories
  • Subscription
  • Colour scheme
  • Videos
  • 'About us'
2) The page design differs for Teen Vogue as its much more minimalist and amateur. They don't have convincing news stories and their whole theme and design doesn't match- colour scheme is conflicting and written articles have spelling mistakes etc.

3) Top menu bar:
  • News
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle
  • Entertainment
This is a diverse range of topics, therefore implying that The Voice is able to provide well-rounded content to all their target audiences. Provides their readers an alternative and many perceptions about each topic.

4) News stories:
  • Raheem Sterling named on prestigious Football Black List
  • The joy of six: world champion Hamilton ready to keep pushing
  • Man, 29, found guilty of sexual offences against children
How they have presented the news from an angle or perspective that reflects The Voice's role as a voice for black Britons:
  • Raheem Stirling is a famous British footballer, and is black. "The Voice newspaper is the home of the Football Black List which shines a light on deserving people working at the community and grassroots level of the game". Celebrating black success. Positive representation of black people.
  • Hamilton is a world known British  F1 champion. He is of black origin so The Voice are celebrating his success as a black person in Britain. Provides an alternative (positive) representation of black people.
  • Roland Lamin, is a sexual predator who was targeting young vulnerable girls. The Voice present him as a guilty suspect and show no support or remorse for him even though he is black. Provides an alternative representation compared to the first 2 articles.
5) There are many ways narrative is used to engage with the audiences. 
  • Roland Barthes, Enigma and Action codes- enigma is used when the stories titles are written on the home page but it doesn't give anything away about the article. E.g. Why is labour failing BAME voters?'. 
  • Todorovs, Equilibrium- we can see thgat in  most of the stories a disequilibrium is caused by an unfortunate event (e.g. Roland Lamin seen as not guilt on his first count), however equilibrium is restored and a new equilibrium is established (Lamin sent to prison). 
  • Propps, character roles- victims are princesses, police is the helper/donor, guilty suspect is the villain etc.
Lifestyle section

1) Top menu bar:
  • Food
  • Fashion and Beauty
  • Health and Wellbeing
  • Relationships
  • Travel
The Voice audience are well rounded in their knowledge and like to indulge in all areas.

2) Stories in the Lifestyle section at the moment:
  •  Honourees aplenty at 2019 Black Magic Awards 
  • Is devolution the key to a happier and healthier Manchester?
3) The Teen Vogue Lifestyle section seems to have more general news such as technology related news and updates, and there is also more relevant news stories such as advice on campus life etc.
The Voice appears to have a wide range of posts in the Lifestyle section to suit their audience's different perspectives.

4) I think they do both- they challenge it by shining light on the positives such as Lewis Hamilton as a successful black British but also reinforce it as the sexual predator, Roland Lamin was shown to be what black people are shown as in the British media- a criminal. 

5) Three stories: 

    • Honourees aplenty at 2019 Black Magic Awards.
    • The rum market in the UK could grow by 8.8% in coming years.
    • Black male grooming brand secures investment to support its growth

All of these stories reflect the values and ideologies of The Voice as they celebrate the success of black Britons in these stories. They are encouraging the younger black Britons to be positive and that they can reach the top and be successful, showing them role models. 
Feature focus
1) Doreen Lawrence stands by claims that racism played factor in Grenfell response 
  •  This reflects the values and ideologies of The Voice as it shows how they are celebrating how she spoke up of behalf of the underrepresented people, also the BAME community.
  • The comments below suggested otherwise, she was described as a "a disgrace" therefore suggests that many readers were unhappy about what she said, so could backfire the ethos of The Voice,
  • This links in with Gilroy's Black Atlantic as it suggests that Doreen meant that the black were at a disadvantage due to their race, which links in with how they don't belong in Britain so they weren't prioritised.

  • Both the article and video reflect the values and ideologies of The Voice as it celebrates and gives a voice to the Black British people and shows them in positive light as role models. It celebrates black females, who are usually underrepresented. 
  •  The production values of the videos are of low quality, they're quite cheap, the audio isn't as clear and its static.
  •  Just by reading the title of the story you can see that they are already trying to portray the people in the article as successful. They are trying to move away from the stereotypes of black people by showing them in positive light, suggesting they are well-educated and respected.

Audience

1) I believe that the target audience for The Voice are Black British people- typical Afro-Caribbean as they were the initial group aimed at. Moreover, the advertising suggests this too as they have things on then sides saying 'send money to Ghana' which suggests their target audience as Africans as well.  Due to having an outdated websites would say that they are targeting an older audience. In terms of demographics I would say a mix of middle to lower class mainly due to the quality of their journalism. 

2) Audience pleasure provided by the website: 
  • Personal identity- being able to relate to some of the content expressed in the stories on The voice website - for example, content relating to victims of gang violence/the coverage on Sterling's commentary on racism in football and his endurance of racist remarks being made towards him.
  • Surveillance- it updates the community what's going on in their environment. 
  • Diversion- talks about gossip, such as the Music Awards.
3) The niche audience perspectives:

  • The banner advertisements - "Africa from London & Manchester"  - again showing that The Voice audience are likely to have family in other countries and are also likely to have moved to Britain from regions such as South Africa.
4) This content may resonate with the Voice's audience as it is likely to be relatable/reminiscent of some of their past experiences. For example, for those who were involved in the Brixton riots/witnessed the injustices present during this time period would be able to make parallels between these current events such as Raheem Sterling reporting on racism in sport and what they have experienced in the past.

5) I think that the quality of the Voice's content and their production values is reflective of this idea of mass amateurisation. This can be seen through their grammatical errors in articles and their video/audio production levels. The website layout isn't professional looking therefore not well established. 

Representations


1) The audience is positioned to respond to representations in the Voice website as a positive outlet of Black Britons. Audiences are encouraged to view the Voice as a means of promoting the idea of community, rather than the idea of viewing black people as a helpless minority - for example, highlighting the successes of Black people across the globe. They celebrate black success- Black Magic Awards and Hamilton's F1 Title.

 2) In my opinion, I think that The Voice representations are an example of "Double consciousness" as they keep their community tight- therefore linking to the idea of 'diasporic identity'./

 3) The Voice seems to capitalise on the fact that the majority of its readership/audience would originate from another country - particularly places in Africa/the Caribbean. This is highlighted through the use of banner advertisements promoting sending money to other countries, e.g. Ghana. This directly relates to Gilroy's theory about "liquidity of culture" as it emphasises the sense of displacement that some Black Britons may feel as their families are likely to still be in their countries of origin despite them being in Britain - their identity has come from travelling to multiple countries rather than it solely being based on where they originate from.

4)
Preferred
The Voice is highlighting black British people, the struggles they face and the success stories that they have come across.
Negotiated
Typically positive representations of the black community but there is a lack of political news - a lot more clickbait; raises questions as to whether or not the Voice is actually effecting change.
Counter-Hegemonic
By solely focusing on the Black community, the Voice is actually singling out black people and making them more externalised rather than making them included in the community around them - still heavily focused on the negatives.

5) Gender Representation: females are portrayed as successful and educated, which highlights the positive nature of The Voice.
Health: They are creating awareness of sensitive topics such as Brest Cancer.

Industries

1) The original values and ideologies behind the Voice:
  •  Create a community
  • Awareness
2) Issues:
  • Racism
  • Lack of jobs
3) GV- Jamaican Gleaner own:
  • Youthlink
  • Western Focus
  • The Flair Magazine
  • The Financial Gleaner
  • The Weekly Gleaner (UK)
4) The Voice website makes money by selling advertising space. I believe that asking for donations is a little bit of a stretch, it's not wrong but if you are going to take peoples money you need to produce something of decent quality.

5) They are typically fixed adverts. This shows that the Voice has quite a basic level of technology and that compared to most modern websites, the Voice is a lot less sophisticated. The fact that they don't use the consumer data to create specific/personalised advertisements suggests that the Voice are unable to operate at a technology level that high/they do not have the funds to do so.

6) I think the Voice was originally designed as a public service tool, this is because it was created in 1982 in response to the riots so wanted to create something which included the Black Britons. It was a means of giving those in the black community a platform to express themselves and be represented through (dispelling this concept of double consciousness).
7) Technological Convergence:
  •  Exclusive interviews
8) I think that it has increased the potential outreach for products like the Voice. I think this is because people are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of gaining an insight on multiple perspectives. It is also easier to access.

9) Twitter Feed;
  • Clickbait
  • More images/videos
10) YouTube: 
  • Thier content id different as its more basic
  • Their production values are low, e/g/ audio levels low and unclear.






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