'The Voice' CSP

The Voice Online CSP 


Media Industries/ Context
-newspaper & online website
-tabloid format
-British national black weekly newspaper 
-topics: news, sport, entertainment, faith, opinion. lifestyle, opinion - valued by readers - trending topics - UK news, fashion and beauty, world news, relationships and entertainment
-owned by GV Media Group Limited
-based in London and published every Thursday
-received many awards which include: Young Voices – two “Best Magazine” awards from the Urban Music Awards 2010 and 2009
-cover price was 54p and was only sold in London
-promote diversity across UK and celebrate black excellence in all industries
-founded in 1982, 1 year after Brixton riots
-independent, niche platform - needed bank loan to start trading 
-initially only sold in London,1st edition was an 'event release' - 1982 August BH weekend (Notting Hill Carnival)
-news commercially successfully in print and online format - fought off competition from New Nation (ceased trading 2016)
-provides social and cultural platform for hard and soft news linked directly to wider black community
-respected editorial team and guest writers
-critical success as well as commercial success
-key focus - black British cultural identity
-Facebook, twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram connect with social media but Instagram has most successful platform (YouTube videos have limited hits)
-The Voice is a commercial media product but also seen as fulfilling a public service through targeting of ethnic minority audience
-website also demonstrates way news institutions have had to respond to new technology through The Voice’s bi-media presence and use of convergence - newspaper and news website
-use of digital platforms to expand output and reach of the products demonstrates how institutions have responded to the impact of new technology - targets a wider audience now - older and younger due to online technology now and traditional paper that typically an older generation would be comfortable reading 

*How does the Voice website make money?

-Through advertisements - they sell space on their website to promoters who need the advertising space.

*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?

-typically fixed adverts - shows the Voice has quite a basic level of technology and compared to most modern websites, the Voice is a lot less sophisticated - 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

Media Language 
-red masthead/ leader board & typography links with print masthead in terms of house style/ brand identity - 
-convergent links to online platforms - important for sharing meaning and moving narratives into public sphere

-leaderboard covers wide range of interests and issues inclusivity and diversity) - news, sport, lifestyle, education, faith, opinion - able to cover wide selection of news to provide their readership with a well-rounded perception of current affairs & provide updates on careers and education is symbolic of the fact that they encourage their target audience to engage with world around them and use it to their advantage - to better improve their lifestyle in the long run
-sub-bar menu - Health, Food, Fostering and Adoption, Female, Travel, Relationships, Competitions - reflect various interests of Afro-Caribbean community that it's aimed towards. The fact that the lifestyle section also includes news on "fostering and adoption" suggests that The Voice community are not only invested in improving their own lifestyles, but are also encouraged to improve lifestyles of others around them. 
-higher photo: written ratio - appeal more to target audience - encourage the to read articles after viewing images
-variety of large, main images for main articles/ stories and smaller images for the other articles
-sans serif font for articles and headlines but serif font for menu bar and headlines - mainly informal approach to stories due to it being a tabloid
-not in columns like a broadsheet would typically be like
-convergent links to audio visual media
-campaigning links with Black History Month
-interactivity encouraged using Gauntlett & Web 2.0 e.g. online polls

Gender

-Females are highlighted in a positive way - portrayed as professional individuals attempting to become involved in a variety of career paths

Age

-Portraying the black youth as creative individuals attempting to make a difference in their community rather than the typically negative portrayal of young black males (aggressive, violent etc) 

Health

-Discusses sexual health, general health issues, diet/lifestyle related content on things that are usually not covered in as much detail - i.e. Women with AIDS etc.

Barthes semiotics theory - hermeneutic/ enigma codes, proairetic/ action codes, symbolic codes, semantic codes, cultural/ referential codes 
*semiotics - images relay certain information to readers, creates a narrative about the world it is constructing 
*race, ethnicity, age demonstrated within images, the way people are positioned in images/ facial expressions/ body language 
*Enigma codes - created through way main headlines are written on homepage - direct questioning for example, encourages reader to question what article's about - makes them more likely to read the article - 
*Referential codes - some readers may struggle to understand the culture behind black history so may have to be more aware and educated before reading the paper

Neale's genre repetition and difference theory -
*typical/ similarities to other news platforms- tabloid favouring soft over hard news but still containing both elements, may focus is entertainment purpose rather than reading and being informed of long, in depth serious articles
*differences - newspaper for British Black community - promote diversity across UK and celebrate black excellence in all industries, spread awareness about racism as still occurs in today society not as much as in past but is still prevalent, place for one community to build a bond/ connection with each other & strength

-Narrative (in online material) - way images & selection of stories construct narrative about world – likely to be ideological

-the fold: placement of content can affect how many users interact and engage with it
*above fold - info shown first visible when reader loads page, gets most of attention from users 
*below fold - reader must scroll to see, content hidden from reader when page first loads e.g. ads and other content will dramatically decrease likelihood of being viewed if below fold

Codes & Conventions:

-Menu bar - depicts range of topics that the newspaper covers - news, sport, lifestyle, education, faith, opinion - inform readers what they'll be reading about so they can decide if this is the paper they are interested in 

-bold masthead - tabloid = red, eye catching for readers, obvious it's an informal paper/ more for entertainment purpose than serious reading
-hard and soft news - convention of mid-market tabloid conventions 
-layout and design follows conventions of online news platform - inset stories, dynamic main story that changes every 5 seconds, entertainment and news stories

Media Representations
-The choice of online product provides a wide range of representational issues - representation of the target audience – black Brixons – but also selection and construction of news stories and their subjects
-Representation of particular groups (race, gender), construction of a Black British identity in The Voice
-typically Black people are considered a minority group and less important than white people - in past some used to be slaves - racism was. such more common e.g. influential figure - Rosa Parks - tried to fight against the white people/ against racism of black community by sitting in 'white coloured persons' seat on bus, Martin Luther King - 'I had a dream speech'

Hall's Reception theory - dominant, negotiated & oppositional readings/ encoded info in different ways
-techniques used by producer to try and get audience to understand ideology of newspaper, • Differing interpretations by different groups – those belonging to and outside primary audience

*dominant reading - narratives constructed by Black British writers for a Black British demographic/ audience - likely to understand and agree with stories & facts published, The Voice is highlighting black British people, the struggles they face and success stories that they have come across

*negotiated reading - if not from Black community, may still understand and respect some of the ideas the stories involve but may not believe in them themselves, typically positive representations of the black community but there is a lack of political news - a lot more click-bait; raises questions as to whether or not the Voice is actually effecting change
*oppositional reading - don't agree with the Black community or any of these ideas being presented through narratives- very against the paper, Black people who may be expected to enjoy and engage in the paper may not actually agree with it as by just 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

Galtung & Ruge's News values - each news story goes through 'gatekeeping' process which decides whether it will make it into the news, ifs try fits range of these values then it'll be published into the news

*frequency - how frequently story published - more familiarity 
*threshold - larger event is, more likely to have affect 
*unambiguity - fewer ways to interpret event
*meaningfulness - more culturally relevant/ proximate
*consonance - if expected to happen
*unexpectedness - if unexpected to happen then more likely to be reported
*continuity - one in news once, future events likely to be reported

*compositional balance - contributes to diversity of topics more likely than one similar to others 
*elite nations - more parts of world likely to be reported than others
*elite persons - celebs, well known figures etc.
*personification - support issue 

*negativity - events with negative outcome - bad news seems to appeal more to audience/ more interesting/ has bigger impact on readers

How do the stories selected construct a particular representation of the world and particular groups and places in it? 
-relevant to black culture 
-involves black celebs, maybe slightly racist still as it includes all people who are black/ about black people but not all black people are only interested in their own community they may also be interested in other communities - suggests the Black-Afro Caribbean community is only interested in what goes on in their own community not anything outside that
-by having a black only newspaper it suggests that the world again is going back to how they were stereotypically viewed in the past by having a special black weekly paper - discriminating against the culture maybe as standard British paper, by just 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
 e.g. Daily Mail and Telegraph may not include that much relevant to the Black community
-However, it is also considered a great idea as its a space where Black community can come together and view the news and entertainment they may be interested and prefer to read and keeps Black community alive and not dehumanised etc.

How is the audience positioned to respond to representations in the Voice website?
-positioned to view representations of black people in the Voice website as refreshing and positive - an attempt to get rid of the previous representation that Black Britons were "estranged and external from the imagined community that is the nation" 
-audiences encouraged to view the Voice as a way of promoting idea of community, rather than idea of viewing black people as a helpless minority, e.g. highlighting successes of Black people across the globe (from Amandla Stenberg starring in The Hate U give, to Nadine Ijewere being the first black female to shoot a cover for Vogue Magazine)


Media Audiences
-aimed at British African-Caribbean community, targets minority group 
-appeals to people who may be of same ethnicity or are just particularly interested in black community 
-primary target audience: middle class & working class - aged 25-55 - black Brixtons - male & female

Blumler & Katz's Uses & Gratifications Theory:
*surveillance - information gained from reading articles, conventions of news platform help reader engage with content
*personal identity - readers may relate in some way to issues affecting the black community
*Elite nations/people - does cover some celebrity news - use celebrity-based news stories acts as clickbait but is also relatively relevant because it educates audience about the celebrities that they may be interested in
*Continuity - ongoing news coverage of progress of black communities and how they are attempting to overcome racial prejudices that are still present in society today
*Balance - covering hard news alongside soft news - appeals to wider audience - not just based on informal entertainment as readers are informed by current news too

Shirky's End of audience theory - explores how digital media and communication may be shaping our society, audiences active not passive now - technology helps us be more active
*audiences share meaning and use platform to actively inform their own discussions, engage in content and use it to share ideas/ spread awareness of sexism etc.
*targeted, primary audience through demographics of ethnicity, race and age which should encourage the study of issues of identity - discuss changing relationship between producers and audiences – is there a need for media aimed at specialised audiences in context of audience as producer? (Shirky ‘End of audience’ theories) 

-Debates around the idea of targeting specialised audiences (by race, age, lifestyle etc.) and how successful that targeting is in reality
-Opportunities for audience interactivity and creativity

Todorov's theory of equilibrium

-act as The Voice attempting to restore a new equilibrium in society where black people can be viewed as equal to other social demographics in society


Social, political, cultural and economic contexts
-historical & cultural significance in its origins (1982) as the UK’s first (and only) newspaper aimed specifically at a black British audience, dealing with relevant political and social issues
-website continues this function but possibly considered more mainstream and less political than in past
-economic context - explored through consideration of nature of production and distribution and move to online content to reach a wider audience and attract advertisers