Background of The Voice:

• What: It is a British national African-Caribbean newspaper operating in the UK.
• Who founded it: Val McCalla (until 2002), Taken over by Jamaican Gleaner Company is 2004. Publisher = GV Media Group Limited.
• When was it founded: 30th August 1982 based in London.
• Target Audience: The circulation of the paper peaked at 55,000 in the early 1990s with young women being a substantial majority of its weekly buyers.
• Available: In a paper version by subscription and online and turned monthly in 2019.
• Genres included: News / Sport / Lifestyle / Entertainment / Competitions / Opinion / Faith / Black British Voices / Video / Publications / Jobs and Galleries.

Statistics:

Theorists:

• Jurgen Habermas:
• David Hesmondhalgh believed companies involved in cultural industries were motivated by profit rather than a duty to public service broadcasting.
• Clay Shirky’s “Newspapers and Thinking he Unthinkable”  is a great summary of the threat the newspaper industry faced from online competition, but you probably already know Teen Vogue is no longer available as a glossy magazine and Oh Comely sold its last copy in 2021. Inevitably, The Voice moved from weekly to monthly editions.

Exam Question:

• Media producers must respond to changing social and cultural contexts to maintain audiences – (25 marks) – The Voice and Teen Vogue
• Media products are shaped by the economic and political contexts in which they are created. (25 marks) – The Voice and Teen Vogue)

The Voice, founded in 1982, is a British national African-Caribbean newspaper operating in the United Kingdom. The paper is based in London and was published every Thursday until 2019 when it became monthly. It is available in a paper version by subscription and also online.

owned by the GV media group limited

Lester Holloway edits the voice and has always had an interest in the political side of life.

The voice started as a print newspaper but with the rising number of people using social media and the internet the executive decision to move it online was made.

Regular columns in the newspaper include Faith, News, Campaigns, Sport, Black British Voices. In addition there are special supplements such as:

• Black Business Guide – an annual publication highlighting and showcasing small black business owners and their trades.
• Apprenticeships – each year, a supplement highlighting apprenticeships across the UK is published alongside the newspaper. The supplement includes features from key figures in business and apprenticeships.
• Carnival – every August, The Voice publishes a Carnival supplement to coincide with the Notting Hill Carnival.
• Bound volumes of the periodical from 1982 to 1999 are held in the Black Cultural Archives.
•  The Voice also features in the British Library collection of Black Britain publications.

Media industry

David Hesmondhalgh argues that major cultural organisations create products for different industries in order to maximise chances of commercial success. Which suggests why the voice was made.

Margret Thatcher was the uk prime minister in 1979-1990 and evoked racist laws against the black community in attempts to get them out of Britain. The voice was created in 1982 for the black community to speak freely against what Margret Thatcher wanted.

David Hesmondhalgh believed companies involved in cultural industries were motivated by profit rather than a duty to public service broadcasting. No one was going to invest in a newspaper which targeted a niche audience unless it was going to make money. However, the social and political context of the early 1980s offered the founder of The Voice, Val McCalla, an opportunity to raise the funds needed for such a risky venture.

Barclays Bank was being heavily criticised for its investments in South Africa where racial segregation was institutionalised in a system known as apartheid. In a bit of impression management, the bank attempted to counteract the negative publicity by showing support for African-Caribbean causes

Media Representation

They were eager to create a countertype to the negative portrayals of black people often represented in the mainstream media. This was particularly important after the civil unrest across England in 1981

The audience are positioned to sympathise with the cowering police officers who are under attack. They are almost protecting the viewer from the violence and the side-turned and torched vehicle is a strong signifier of the destruction they are trying to prevent.

Structure

The voice follows the same structure per post

The Voice, founded in 1982, is a British national African-Caribbean newspaper operating in the United Kingdom. The paper is based in London and was published every Thursday until 2019 when it became monthly. It is available in a paper version by subscription and also online.

Representation

Before the introduction of The Voice, the black press in Britain targeted first-generation immigrants. Newspapers, such as The Caribbean Times and West Africa, kept the diaspora up to date about news about the old countries. The Voice was different. It wanted to publish stories which were relevant to the second generation who were born and raised in Britain.

They were eager to create a countertype to the negative portrayals of black people often represented in the mainstream media. This was particularly important after the civil unrest across England in 1981.

David Hesmondhalgh believed companies involved in cultural industries were motivated by profit rather than a duty to public service broadcasting. No one was going to invest in a newspaper which targeted a niche audience unless it was going to make money. However, the social and political context of the early 1980s offered the founder of The Voice, Val McCalla, an opportunity to raise the funds needed for such a risky venture.

Barclays Bank was being heavily criticised for its investments in South Africa where racial segregation was institutionalised in a system known as apartheid. In a bit of impression management, the bank attempted to counteract the negative publicity by showing support for African-Caribbean causes.

postcolonialism – Paul Gilroy

It is worth mentioning Margaret Thatcher’s concern in 1978 that the UK “might be rather swamped by people of a different culture”.⁵ Then, in 1981, the Metropolitan Police began “Operation Swamp”, using stop and search powers to arrest members of the public who had not even committed a crime. Of course, a disproportionate number of people from the African-Caribbean community were taken into custody, prompting accusations that the police were motivated by racism

Stuart Hall – Stereotypes

Audience

In We The Media, Dan Gillmor (2004) explored the changes in the news industry. He argued grassroots journalists were a serious threat to the monopolies enjoyed by big media conglomerates. The “official” news organisations are no longer writing the “first draft of history” because “the audience is learning how to get a better, timelier report”.

This sort of citizen journalism is a good example of Clay Shirky’s concept of mass amateurisation.

The Voice will struggle to be heard by an audience who prefer the quick and easy comment culture of social media rather than long-form journalism.

 Clay Shirky’s concept of mass amateurisation:

New digital technologies and social media has made connecting and collaborating incredibly easy. We want to like, follow, tweet, repost, cross-post, comment, review and subscribe. When we create our own content on our smartphones and share our thoughts with the world, the difference between producer and consumer becomes increasingly difficult to define. It is the end of audience.

David Hesmondhalgh believed companies involved in cultural industries were motivated by profit rather than a duty to public service broadcasting. No one was going to invest in a newspaper which targeted a niche audience unless it was going to make money. However, the social and political context of the early 1980s offered the founder of The Voice, Val McCalla, an opportunity to raise the funds needed for such a risky venture.

McCalla secured £62,000 from Barclays with the backing of the Loan Guarantee Scheme which was part of a series of initiatives set up by Margaret Thatcher’s government to help unemployed people start their own business. The Voice enterprise was a success and the bank loan was paid off within five years.

The relationship between producers and audiences has also shifted. The publishers promote their content on various social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. Most posts will direct you to the main website, but The Voice will also retweet and share posts from other institutions to increase the level of engagement with their primary audience.

Although this connection and level of interactivity is expected by digital natives, an older audience might still prefer the feel of print between their fingers.

Has historical and cultural significance in its origins as the UK’s first newspaper aimed specifically at a black British audience, dealing with relevant political and social issues. The website continues this function but is perhaps considered more mainstream and less political than in the past. The economic context can be explored through a consideration of the nature of the production and distribution and move to online content to reach a wider audience and attract advertisers.

Representation

Before the introduction of The Voice, the black press in Britain targeted first-generation immigrants. Newspapers, such as The Caribbean Times and West Africa, kept the diaspora up to date about news about the old countries. The Voice was different. It wanted to publish stories which were relevant to the second generation who were born and raised in Britain.

They were eager to create a countertype to the negative portrayals of black people often represented in the mainstream media. This was particularly important after the civil unrest across England in 1981.

Specific post

The social share buttons are provided by the AddThis – a company which aims to help businesses “develop a more personal and effective relationships with their current and future customers”. Looking like a natural part of the webpage experience because of the inline design and use of brand colour (#d41224), the share buttons are a subtle way to encourage readers to share the articles on their own social channels and become ambassadors for The Voice.

Language

Value black people and like to make them feel superior and strong and independent. They bring racist issues and discrimination problems to the light to relate to their specific audience= they use images of mainly black people to get their views and values across and to attract their target audience. They also have quite a colourful website to show support for ‘coloured’ people and present it in a much more positive term. The images used are often not photoshopped and are natural, giving a real view of people which could better relate to their audience.

Semiotics- the voice presents content of mainly black people- world is becoming more diverse and is not based on only white people in the media. The title ‘The Voice’ signifies the voice they give to black people.

Industries

Founded in 1982, based in London and is published every Thursday. First issue of The Voice was printed to coincide with the Notting Hill Carnival in August 1982. Its cover price was 54 pence, and was only sold in London. In 1981, the Brixton race riots shone a spotlight on race relations in Britain. 

^The Voice emerged in 1982 partly as a result of these riots – both due to the need to offer a voice and representation to black Britons and also due to a business loan from Barclays Bank. The bank was keen at the time to improve their reputation with the black community due to investments in Apartheid South Africa.

Is a commercial media product but could also be seen as fulfilling a public service through its targeting of an ethnic minority audience. The website also demonstrates the way that news institutions have had to respond to new technology through The Voice’s bi-media presence and use of convergence.

Audiences

The Voice’s target audience is black people, more specifically, black Britons.

They successfully target them by producing content that they can relate to.

They follow the cultural stereotypes yet go against all negative stereotypes that the media may have placed on black people, in relation to Stuart Hall

The Voice produces quite unique and specific content which is very relatable to the audience and also gives them a voice. Gives a sense of audience pleasures, relating to the uses and gratifications theory.

SPECIFIC: ‘Cast for ‘Black Superhero’ revealed’ entertainment article relates to target audience by talking about the Jeffery Dahmer series, in which the majority of his victims were black individuals. The quote ‘many of us brown boys who like men have, for the most part, been culturally starved of since we entered this world’ relating to the black target audience as many black individuals feel that they are negatively stereotyped meaning that they can relate to the article. This links to the uses and gratifications theory by Katz, Gurevitch and Haas, as it suggests that the audience will be receiving a sense of social audience pleasures such as knowledge about the world and strengthening of connections with their community.

NEW MEDIA	OLD MEDIA	COMMENT OR EXAMPLE
Active involvement 	Passive involvement 
Two-way conversation	One-way conversation
Open system	Closed system
Transparent	Opaque
One-on-one marketing	Mass marketing
About Me	About You
Brand and User-generated Content	Professional content
Authentic content	Polished content
FREE platform	Paid platform
Metric: Engagement	Metric: Reach/ frequency
Actors: Users / Influencers	Actors/ Celebrities
Community decision-making	Economic decision-making
Unstructured communication	Controlled communication
Real time creation	Pre-produced/ scheduled
Bottom-up strategy	Top-down strategy
Informal language	Formal language

share	active	creative	host
example or comment
	story 	re-connect	personalise	stream
example or comment
	experience	store	scale	immerse
example or comment
	interface	live	adapt	binge
example or comment
	conversation	re-perform	circulate	endless 
example or comment

The Voice newspaper was first published in 1982, “committed to celebrating black experience” and aiming to deliver “positive change” by “informing the black community on important issues”.

The impact of new technologies forced the production, distribution and circulation of The Voice to change drastically. Audiences started to consume media through online products and downloads instead of through physical copies of media products. This change in audience consumption forced The Voice to focus more on its digital output rather than physical output.

Val Mcalla, founder of The Voice, received £62,000 from Barclays Bank through the Loan Guarantee Scheme, which was part of a series of initiatives set up by Thatcher’s government to help unemployed people start their own businesses. This loan offered Mcalla an opportunity to raise the funds to start The Voice. Barclays was heavily criticised for it’s investments in South Africa where racial segregation was institutionalized in a system known as apartheid – a system of institutionalised racial segregation in South (West) Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. This loan was a success for Mcalla and was paid off within 5 years.

The circulation of The Voice peaked in the early 1990s at 55,000 with young women being a substantial majority of its weekly buyers.

In 2004, The Gleaner Company (a Jamaican newspaper and media enterprise), took ownership of The Voice – paying over £3m. GV Media Group, a subsidiary of The Gleaner Company, still publishes the paper today.