The first issue of Undercurrents, published in April 1994, featured "ninety minutes of high energy, passionate, in-yer-face action. Not what you see on television." (Harding, 1997). Each issue of Undercurrents contained a range of items, on different topics and of varied duration. A summary of the items in the first is­ sue gives a good idea of the nature of the material:

     "Street Stories" was a ten-minute round-up of stories not covered on mainstream television; "Totally Out of Order'' a 16-minute, four-part film on the new Criminal Justice Act and its likely effect on the activities of protesters, ravers, travelers, and squatters; "The Drainer" was a three-minute film about an unemployed man who supplements his benefit by retrieving coins from gutters; " When Seals Take Control" presented a light-hearted look at media coverage of direct action, lasting six minutes; "Bash the Baddy" was a seven-minute film of an Oxford Councillor being interrogated by an environmental activist on the subject of traffic in Oxford city center; and the longest item was "You've Got To Be Choking," a two-part award­ winning film, lasting 35 minutes, charting the progress of the campaign to stop the building of a link road to the M11 motorway in northeast London.

     The variety and eclecticism of the contents of each video was intentional, a deliberate departure from the formulaic predictability of mainstream news and current affairs where the agenda is predetermined and where stories are dealt with in a conventional manner.

     Paul O'Connor, a video activist involved with Under­ currents from the beginning, was responsible for editing issue 6 in 1996, a process lasting five months that he describes in Thomas Harding's The Video Activist Handbook ( 1997). After deciding on a list of possible issues to be covered and recruiting activists to film and edit them (a process that lasted from July to October) O'Connor started putting all the material together for the finished video: "I start seeing the advantage of having a wide diversity of videos. They complement each other-the rough with the smooth, the long with the short, the humorous with the serious-and  I can see that people are making a change in all walks of life, in many different ways" (Harding, 1997). By the end of November, 500 copies of issue 6 had been duplicated, to be sent out to subscribers, the majority of copies of Undercurrents being sold by mail order rather than through retail outlets, resulting in a higher percentage of the takings going to the producers. While only 1,000 copies of each issue were duplicated, Harding estimates the total audience to be over 40,000, including group screenings and tapes being passed on to friends. Undercurrents is not only a video magazine but an organization responsible for training activists from all over Britain in the use of camcorders in their campaigns. It has also helped to set up two other video magazines in the Netherlands and in Australia. Along with other oppositional groups, Undercurrents has clearly benefited from the "camcorder revolution" of the 1990s, with the inexpensive, lightweight domestic camcorder being adopted for a range of alternative, political purposes. Given the conservatism of the mainstream news media, organizations like Undercurrents have exploited the opportunity to provide an alternative viewpoint on contemporary social issues, especially the environment and global capitalism. While the broadcasting corporations have a stranglehold over most news reporting, the video magazine offers an alternative form of news distribution, providing an opportunity to bypass the conventional news media and make available alternative and oppositional views on important topics.

     Issue 10 of Undercurrents was published in April 1999 and included an item on the new Labour government's arms sales to repressive regimes, showing that Undercurrents was not restricted to targeting the Conservative government whose policies had encouraged the growth of video activism. Since issue 10, publication of the video magazine has been discontinued, but Undercurrents continues its alternative news activities via its website. The rise of demonstrations against global capitalism has shown that there is still a need for an alternative news organization, and in December 2001 Undercurrents released a video on "Globalization and the Media," exploring mainstream reporting of "the increasing Corporate control of the world" (Undercurrents website press release, December 6, 200 I). The video featured activist footage from the G8 protests in Genoa, links between Britain's main commercial broadcaster and Shell Oil, and the ways in which media activists are using the Internet to bypass mainstream media. Indeed the Internet may prove to be the main outlet for Undercurrents as an alternative news agency in the 21st century.