the voice

• The Voice newspaper is "committed to celebrating black experience" and aims to deliver "positive change" by "informing the black community on important issues"
• The Voice remains "Britain's most successful black newspaper"
• The Voice


  A newspaper first published in 1982
• The production, distribution and circulation of The Voice

  1. Has changed dramatically since its first edition

  2. The publishers had to respond to the impact of new technology on the way audiences were consuming texts

  3. The movement away from physical media to online products and downloads

  4. This change in consumption forced the newspaper to focus more on its digital output
• Financing of The Voice

  • David Hesmondhalgh believed companies involved in cultural industries were motivated by profit rather than a duty to public service broadcasting
  • 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
  • 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
• Circulation of The Voice

  • Peaked at 55,000 in the early 1990s
  • Young women being a substantial majority of its weekly buyers
• Ownership of The Voice

  • In 2004, The Gleaner Company, a Jamaican newspaper and media enterprise, took ownership of the newspaper for over £3m
  • At that point, the newspaper had already "suffered from a decline in advertising revenue and increased competition"
  • The Gleaner Company believed their purchase of The Voice was a "golden opportunity to better serve our readers of the diaspora"
• The shift in publishing from print media to digital formats

  Has been dramatic
• Production costs for online newspapers

  • Generally cheaper compared to the traditional tabloid
  • After some upfront expenditure to design and build a functioning website, the main running costs are for hosting, maintenance and security
• Consumers' preference for digital format

  • They can access the site at a time that suits their lifestyle and routine
  • No need to wait until next month's edition to get the story behind the headlines
• Relationship between producers and audiences


  • The publishers promote their content on various social media channels
  • Most posts will direct you to the main website
  • The Voice will also retweet and share posts from other institutions to increase the level of engagement with their primary audience
• An older audience might still prefer the feel of print between their fingers
• Citizen journalism


  • 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"
• Advertising revenue


  • The profitability of a newspaper really depends on it
  • Including the classified ads for institutions who are wanting to hire new employees
  • Council recruiting carried The Voice during the recession years of the 1980s
  • The online version generates revenue from display ads and advertorials
• Advertorials


  • Advertisements that resemble news stories and follow the same template as the real posts
  • The mode of address is closer to a press release than a journalist's report
  • The Advertising Standards Authority in the UK require advertorials to be clearly labelled as paid content
• Advertorials on The Voice website are categorised as sponsored
• The Voice


  • Wanted to publish stories which were relevant to the second generation who were born and raised in Britain
  • 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
• Binary opposition


  The headline on the 1981 front page of The Sun reinforces the binary opposition between the civilised England and the savage Other
• The Voice continues to construct a positive profile of the black community
• The Voice Online


  • Follows many of the basic conventions of web design
  • Header consists of a logo, horizontal menu with main categories, subscription button, and social media links
  • Search function available
  • Hamburger icon loads a full list of categories and subcategories
  • Submenu appears when hovering over main categories on larger devices
• The Voice Online


  • Follows many of the basic conventions of web design
  • Header consists of a logo, horizontal menu, subscription button, social media links, search function
  • Hamburger icon loads a full list of categories and subcategories
  • Hover over main categories to see submenu
• Straightforward interface


  Enables users to quickly understand the structure of the website and navigate to relevant sections
• Homepage and category pages

  • Contain a collection of links to news stories in a card layout
  • Cards include thumbnail, category link, headline
  • Cards organised into grids
  • Responsive design scales and reorients cards to fit viewport
• Category and archive pages

  • Organised into modules for subcategories
  • Larger cards for top stories to set the agenda
• Individual posts


  • Contain breadcrumbs, dateline, byline, headline, kicker, social share buttons, featured image, caption, main copy, comments section
• Headline


  • Large font, dark colour, bold weight
  • Kicker has lighter colour and smaller font
• Social share buttons


  Provided by AddThis to encourage readers to share articles
• Main copy


  Left-aligned with ragged-right edge, modern sans serif font
• The mode of address depends on the article type (e.g. more emotive language in opinion pieces, hyperbolic in sports commentary)
• User-generated content in comments section is a typical website feature
• Websites can reflect the social and cultural context in which they are produced
• Codes and conventions of websites influence meaning
• Websites can construct values and ideologies through their codes and conventions
• Stereotypes and countertypes are used on websites
• The representation of particular groups has been constructed in The Voice
• The news values of The Voice reflect their ideologies
• Representations in The Voice reflect their social and cultural context
• Websites epitomise changes in audience consumption
• New technology continues to influence the production of websites
• Institutions must respond to technology changes to appeal to the audience