More equitable futures are possible if we dare to imagine them, and include more people within the conversation. Here’s how Untelevised is creating the space for solutions. This article is part of the People-Powered Storytelling collaborative series.
Untelevised is a multimedia platform focused on exploring possibilities for social change, aiming to make politics and political engagement genuinely accessible, alongside providing a platform to showcase grassroots organisations, activists and projects that are trialling imaginative, compassionate and radical approaches to social justice. It is a joint project between the creative media company, Filmanthropy, and the grassroots organisation, Revoke. Here, founders Mona Bani and Fisayo Fadahunsi share more with gal-dem’s former head of editorial Suyin Haynes about their mission, what citizen journalism looks like in practice, and creating space for solutions to build more equitable futures.
Why did you establish Untelevised, and what is the platform’s main mission?
We launched in 2019 with a visit to Nijmegen in the Netherlands, a city hailed as the ‘Havana of Holland’ – brimming with imaginative projects that showcase alternatives to our current capitalist, consumerist society. We visited nomadic communities living from dumpster diving, compost toilets and water butt systems; cafes serving free meals sourced from surplus food; a bar run entirely by volunteers to raise money for the homeless, and much more. In documenting these projects and working with people who did not have the media skills, equipment or capacity to document themselves, we were able to garner solidarity for their causes, whilst sharing practical examples for others to follow in their own lives.
We continued this on-the-ground approach – spearheading projects like the #SaveGranville campaign to stop the closure of a Granville Community Kitchen in North London – for a few months until lockdown hit and we were no longer able to visit and film projects. So, in June 2020, we launched Untelevised: The Podcast to provide a resource for anyone interested in social change, to learn, discuss and share the struggles, the wins, the possibilities. Each episode is aimed at taking people along their journey; from the initial penny drop moment; to the deeper dive into the questions that arise; to offering practical solutions and signposting to ongoing actions they can take and projects they can support. Now four seasons deep, we've already covered topics from 'What is Capitalism?' and ‘What is Socialism?’ to ‘Is food political?’ and 'Can consumerism ever be ethical?' Our guests have included the CEO & Founder of Choose Love; the Chair of Trussell Trust Foodbank Network; award-winning journalists like Anjan Sundaram; and organisations exploring more ethical practices, like London Renters’ Union, Ethical Consumer, and Land in Our Names.
Our collaboration allows us to draw upon our combined expertise in media production and direct connection with communities on the margins. Through democratic and accessible citizen journalism, we aim to create content that highlights that social justice is not only possible but can even be enjoyable. For everyone who feels in their bones that society needs a drastic overhaul but doesn’t know where to start. We hope they might start with us.
What does citizen journalism mean and look like to you?
Technology is transforming the traditionally exclusionary media landscape, making way for citizens, or ‘ordinary’ people to document what they see, hear and think in ways that would have been impossible just a couple of decades ago. More people than ever before are playing an active role in collecting, reporting, analysing and sharing news and information.
We set up Untelevised as we felt there was a disconnect between the people doing the actual, frontline, social justice work and those producing media and telling the stories. We feel strongly about what ordinary people, with no obligation, job title, salary etc are doing every day to fill the gaps left by governments and statutory services. They are showing, through their actions, that they believe the world should be a fairer and more compassionate place. This is admirable, but it shouldn't be the case. The name ’Untelevised' is inspired by Gil Scott-Heron’s liberation song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” For us, the revolution is not a single moment or act but something that happens through continued acts over time. We are televising it by documenting these acts that do not traditionally gain mainstream attention, the 'untelevised lives' so to speak.
A crucial tenet of this, for us, must also be teaching and encouraging critical thinking. We acknowledge that the democratisation of the media space also comes with over saturation of content. There is a responsibility to teach people the skills to decipher the information that they are consuming and to encourage them to be comfortable in continually challenging the narratives they are presented with. Rather than promoting censorship or ‘cancel culture,’ we feel society is best served if we ‘ban nothing but question everything’.
This is a topic that we feel passionately about, so much so that we dedicated a whole episode of our podcast to the concept of citizen journalism, listen to ‘So, should media be democratic?’ here.
What lessons do you feel can be learned from your approach to working with communities, rather than covering their stories from a detached perspective?
At Untelevised, we very much feel that we work with media rather than in the media, using it as a tool for social change. We were drawn to media as it not only allows us to capture the world as it is but also provides audiences with the opportunity to comment on the issues that affect them and, through discussion, make changes to them.
Traditionally, production processes have a clear division of power – the ‘journalist’ behind the camera (or microphone or pen) and the ‘contributor’ in front of it. The contributors' involvement begins only when the camera starts rolling and ends as soon as it stops.
Through our work at the grassroots level, we know that communities are experts by experience, so we have decided to take a co-production approach to content creation.
This approach is rooted in an exchange of skills and knowledge between us and the communities that we feature. So, whilst we might share our technical skills, equipment, storytelling craft and professional contacts with communities, we gain access to people close to an issue with a deep connection to them. This allows us to bring unheard stories and perspectives to the forefront, increasing awareness of issues that might be missed or underrepresented by mainstream producers and ultimately allowing media to be used to fight for social good.
Importantly, this sharing of power allows us to rebuild trust in media as a medium and its place in social progress. Often marginalised or underrepresented communities have a negative association with the media space, rooted in repeat misrepresentation and disempowerment. These failures have resulted in fractured relationships and a deep mistrust in the traditional function of the press as a pillar of democracy. A co-production approach creates a system of accountability between us as producers and the communities we are capturing. And, we feel, returns us somewhat to this mission.
Tell us more about your approach to covering inequality – why do you think it’s important to focus on deep-rooted and systemic issues, rather than looking at trending topics or responding reactively to the news cycle?
We don’t deal with trending topics or current events in isolation but aim to always tackle issues systematically, looking at root causes for why something has come to be. We know that most of the things we see in the news cycle are just different manifestations, or consequences of this systemic inequality. Focusing solely on this feels like a doctor only reacting to the symptoms rather than the causes of an illness, and then being surprised when it isn't cured. We believe that people will just keep hearing these different versions of the same systemic issue and still not feel more educated about why this might be happening. They will just feel angry, or scared, or exhausted, without any resources for how to deal with it – and may even just choose to switch off from the news altogether.
Reacting to trending topics is also completely unsustainable for us. We’re a small project, and if we had to be reactive to the news cycle, we’d collapse. There are news outlets that are made for this and are equipped to do this much more effectively than we ever could. We do not wish to compete with this existing infrastructure. Where we feel we’re best placed is to spend time gathering those deeper and less visible stories, which other news outlets don't have the relationships – or the desire – to access. And with just one of those pieces, someone might come to understand, and be able to better process, the more mainstream news stories.
For example, to us, the recent riots and violence around the UK in July and August 2024 are clear consequences of years of austerity, anti-immigration and racist policies and narratives from politicians, and the erosion of community within civil society. Prior to the riots, Revoke (one half of Untelevised) had been experiencing months of Home Office raids on asylum hotels – often as frightening as the attacks by rioters. Revoke had been organising against the government’s abhorrent plan to send humans to Rwanda. These riots were not surprising. They were inevitable.
We’d want that to be the story, so that the public can see why things happen the way they do, and therefore feel that there are ways to combat and undo this far-right extremism, rather than just feel scared, confused, or angry about it.
When I was working at gal-dem, I never wanted audiences to feel bereft or powerless after engaging with an article that highlights inequality or injustice – instead, we wanted our audiences to feel empowered to act and create meaningful change. Does that chime with your work, and the ways in which you hope your audiences will engage with it?
This is the most important part of Untelevised, and why we wanted to establish the platform in the first place. We all know that one of the biggest rebuttals to any attempts at challenging or changing society, is ‘but what’s the alternative?’ For many people, who aren’t veteran activists or already working with social causes in some way, that can be enough to discourage and disempower them. People often have limited time, resources and energy outside of their jobs and other commitments, so unless they can see tangible solutions to get involved with, they are likely to disconnect and give up.
This is why we end all of our productions – from podcasts to mini-documentary features – with a ‘Share’ section. This is where our guests, or projects we’re featuring, give the audience actual tips on how they can get involved with this issue we’re exploring. This might be a list of organisations to support; campaigns to back; petitions to sign; letter templates for MPs; boycotts to back etc.
If you want to join us in this search for solutions, you can find us at www.untelevised.tv and @untelevised_tv. The Podcast is available on all streaming platforms under ‘Untelevised: The Podcast’.
Fisayo Fadahunsi is a Multimedia Producer. She is the Founder and Managing Director of Filmanthropy and Co-Founder of Untelevised. Mona Bani is the Founder and Managing Director of Revoke CIC and Co-Founder of Untelevised. She also consults funders and the wider migration sector.
This article is part of People-Powered Storytelling, a new collaborative series showcasing the transformative impact of community-centred media initiatives in the UK. Read more about the series, and the other contributions that are part of it, here.