Deepview TV

Introduction

Increasingly, people in the UK feel disempowered, disenfranchised and disengaged as a result of the social changes and politics of contemporary Britain. Unfortunately, far from reflecting this reality, the media, all too frequently, simply reflect the interests of government and corporations, and has been complicit in under-representing or mis-representing other views and analysis of our society as well as the positive alternative ideas and solutions that are being offered.

This is potentially damaging as well as dangerous, for if, (as we all well know), the media's effectiveness and success are based on creating a significant and powerful influence on the perceptions and behaviours of the population, it should also, necessarily, be incumbent upon the media to have a responsibility to use its power in a way that is socially responsible.

As media bias and monopoly ownership have become more prevalent, especially in television, the range and diversity of voices and experiences; the research, analysis, documentation, campaigns, discoveries, proposals and other positive contributions being made by the many individuals, journalists, filmmakers, academics, non-profit, community and campaign groups is rarely given access to media that can influence the mainstream political, social or economic agenda. Individualised private blogs, websites, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter may be useful tools, but they also simply serve to atomise challenges to the status quo, diluting potentially positive ideas, movements and opportunities for social change. 

We want to help those less-heard, alternative and positive voices to come together to find a wider audience and encourage positive social change. 

We want to help promote progressive views and values to challenge the existing bias in mainstream media that maintains and promotes the interests of a privileged minority.

We want to become a resource for, and tool of, third sector and wider groups, filmmakers, journalists, community organisations and campaigns; creating, reflecting and communicating the growing network of initiatives, campaigns and achievements by change-makers.

Based on our belief in the important roles that media and information channels play in informing and changing opinions, our aim is to provide media and content solutions that connect socially-conscious filmmakers, content providers, campaigners and community groups with fresh audiences and supporters.

By creating an internet TV platform, free from external commercial, investor, newspaper or existing broadcaster interests, we will be able to help bring together and amplify the voices of the labour and community movements, building and connecting audiences to strengthen the voice of all. In so doing, we can make our own creative contribution to help increase social awareness, social engagement and social collaboration and move us all closer towards a more equal, fair and thriving society; both locally and globally.

 

The Project

Deepview TV is being developed as an ethical, democratic, distributed television platform that is a community-owned and collectively managed social and media resource.

Envisioned to be a 'television commons', it will be part of a larger ecosystem of functional services designed to serve the needs of our community of users. It will contribute to a wider 'media commons' that is also under development through the actions and activities of many like-minded organisations and individuals. We want to catalyze a new collaborative, democratic environment for the communication of social and cultural issues.

Deepview TV will specifically support the work of independent content creators and changemakers - filmmakers, journalists, trade unions, co-operatives, charities, campaigners, community groups and third sector organisations in the UK. It will be a democratically owned and managed organisation, with content reflecting its diverse community of content contributors and audiences, using a distributed, networked model.

The platform aims to help bring together, and build connections between issues, campaigns, content creators, organisations and communities. It provides a hub for a holisitic, 'community of interest' - individuals and groups across the third sector and civil society working to bring about positive, equitable, social change - building connections

It will be a resource and tool for locating and linking relevant, related content. Through the curation and sharing of this content (scheduled programming, live coverage of events and a video-on-demand library of films and programmes curated by filmmakers and organisations), we will help connect a growing audience interested in looking deeper than the mainstream media allows.

Together, we will explore and share the experiences, stories, facts and debates behind issues; highlight our society's failings, acknowledge positive achievements; and learn how we can engage with, and contribute towards, the creation of a better, fairer, more democratic society for all. 

For further information, please see our page of FAQ page. We would also encourage you to explore the sample list of individuals and organisations whose work or ideas we have acknowledged on our Acknowledgements page.

Finally, if you feel you can contribute any help in the form of advice, suggestions, skills, finance (!) or if you just have a query, we'd love to hear from you.

 

 

Note: The image below is a sample screenshot of our working 'pre-alpha' test version video library for Deepview TV. The released version may vary in design.

Sample screenshot of 'pre-alpha' test video library.