Imagine television - live, scheduled and on-demand programmes, available on any device, anywhere. Imagine television - with socially inclusive, community-created, educational, informative and entertaining content - films, interviews, discussions, campaigns, news, events. Imagine television - owned, managed and curated by the people that make its content and those who watch it.

Nothing new in any of this; it's all been done and some of it is indeed very good. However, a key question is - why, despite these attempts, has television failed to fulfill its potential as a democratically progressive tool for the benefit of all society, rather than the cynically oppressive tool it has become, in its use as a public soother and political and social manipulator for the benefit of a few?

Media=power, Power=media

The truth is that all tools can be used for good or ill and the history of film and television is inseparable from their use as a tool by those who could access them, produce their own content and distribute it to captive audiences; governments and corporations. Even now, with the seeming ease of access by citizens to creative tools (from personal smartphones to professional studios) and distribution channels (via the internet) to global audiences, the media is still dominated by a few individuals and their corporations, (e.g. UK and USA) working largely to a self-serving agenda of geo-capitalism and government compliance. Where are the independent voices? As John Pilger opined, "The whole essence of media is not about information. It’s about power.”

The problem, we believe, is a lack of an alternative construct for media production and distribution. When even local, independent, community television organisations have to mimic the models of monopolistic and capitalist entities, where the best alternatives offered against these systems are "mini-me's" of the same system they wish to condemn, then the battle is lost before it's begun.

A Television Commons

It seems to many that television in particular and traditional media in general (that was supposed to hold truth to power and inform democracy in society), are all in crisis for want of a different modus operandi. Into this space, many necessary and innovative new tools of digital media and improved  democratic participation have, and are, being launched. As people seek new combinations of media and social engagement, perhaps a new paradigm, is also required for television.

The process of ‘commoning’ reimagines social resources, not as top-down services delivered by the state to the people, but as activities and relationships co-designed and co-produced by lay people and professionals, with control anchored at local level.

In this way, Deepview is being designed as a 'Television Commons'; re-inventing, reclaiming and re-purposing television as part of the Commons; a collective media resource to help filmmakers, journalists, campaigners and communities across the country, to come together to share and promote their content, giving a platform to the people and ideas that can hold power to account as well as those that can provide positive routes to a better and fairer society for all.

References on the Commons:-
a) http://neweconomics.org/2017/05/building-new-social-commons/)
b) http://www.onthecommons.org/about-commons#sthash.GlP4AR54.jJcZ6m2W.dpbs
c) https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/498858/future-of-cities-urban-commons.pdf
d) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commons
e) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commons#Contemporary_commons_movements