Media Studies AQA A-Level - The Voice Online

"Britain 's best black news paper"

Formatting

Tabloid/broadsheet - Has a mix of soft news as well as hard hitting stories in relation to black british audiences

Stuart Hall - Reception Theory

Aimed at a black british audience

Intended - Showing the success of black britons as well as highlighting issues/problems

Negotiated - Usually positive, but feels that there isn’t enough important news (not up to date/not enough writers)

Oppositional - May feel that having the focus only be on black people is ginling them out and making them more externalised

Paul Gilory - Post-Colonialism

Says BAME people are represented as others

In The Voice they are the main target audience so have a positive representation

Comparing to other news publications - others have no representation of black people (e.g. bbc sports)

Double consciousness - The Voice gives opportunity for black audiences to see the world through their own eyes (rather than white mainstream media)

Curran and Seaton - Variety in the industry

The Voice is indpendent from bigger mainstream media - but has a small budget and writing team

Leads to ‘churnalism’ - stories shorter and less detailed taken from other news sources online - derivative

Blumler and Katz - Uses and gratifications

Surveillance - Learning about progression within the black community

Personal identity - Relating to some content and stories about the black experience in Britain

Entertainment - News about TV, film, sports, competitions etc.

Website Composition

Fonts and logo - blend of the original and modern styles

Few adverts - static and basic technology - failing technological convergence

Sponsored advertorials - targeted at the black british/jamaican/african audience e.g. “HEAL-D” diabetes program

Individual pages not updated frequently

Conventional online news site design

Technological convergence

Publication sold to the Jamaica Gleaner company in early 2004 - in 2019 the physical print moved to a monthly edition that was only accessible via subscription

Has social media accounts like Youtube - post interviews - this adds a level of interaction between producer and consumer

Target audience

BC1C2

Black Britons - 18-50

Reformers, succeeders and mainstreamers (despite alternative press, the content is not challenging)

“They stole black children’s eduucation - now we must hold them to account”

Audience of children of windrush generation - institutional racism witihin school during the 80s (‘educationally subnormal’) and still happening now (‘Pupil Referral Units’)

News values - Negativity, personal identity, scale, proximity, meaningfulness, expectedness