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| Naomi and Nick with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. |
DESCRIBING ITSELF as a 'worker-owned, people-funded streaming service', Means TV launches worldwide on February 26.
The duo behind Means TV are Naomi Burton and Nick Hayes. They abandoned soul-sapping careers in the corporate sector to establish Means of Production,
a small Detroit-based film company focused on producing work for progressive causes and candidates. Its perhaps best known for producing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's wildly popular election campaign video. It has clocked up over three
million hits on YouTube alone.
The path to Means TV began after the pair met at an Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) meeting in Detroit following the 2016 presidential election.
'We were angry and frustrated that the Democrats lost what we saw as the easiest-to-win election ever, Naomi says.
Means TV will screen a wide spectrum of content, from dramas to documentaries to comedy to news commentates to animation. The crucial difference is that
the streaming service will provide an outlet for left wing voices normally ignored by the mainstream media.
'We need to rebuild the culture of revolt and tear down a lot of these individualist ideas that are pushed in entertainment,” Nick explains. 'We are
working to build solidarity through entertainment, to build class consciousness, to build frustration and anger towards capitalism.'
Nick says that Means TV won't be conventionally political.
'We get asked that question a lot. 'Is everything you guys make gonna be political?”'And the answer is both yes and no. Everything on Netflix is political,
and a lot of it is advocating for the status quo. We’re not really interested in that sort of media. That being said, we want to make stuff that people find entertaining. Our basic rubric is: 'Is this punching up or punching
down? Is this racist or individualistic or contrary to themes we as leftists and working people hold closely?'
Means TV is launching at a time when there is a huge surge of interest in socialism in America, especially among young people. The old arguments and the
old prejudices spread by both conservatives and liberals alike about socialism mean little to a new generation who see socialism as offering them hope for a better future increasingly being denied to them by capitalism.
Naomi: 'I feel that as we sink deeper into this capitalist hellscape we live in, the more relatable our content will become. We started shooting a lot
of this stuff a year ago, and even in that short time it’s become more relevant, and more people are starting to see behind the curtain. I think our audience will continue to expand because of that.'
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