The panel on tonight's Q&A on ABC1
Tonight’s Q&A panel on ABC1 will feature Assistant Federal Treasurer Bill Shorten, Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, UN Youth Representative Samah Hadid, political commentator Piers Akerman, and comedian and former Big Brother host Gretel Killeen.
You can catch it on ABC television, or here. And you can read a stream of Q&A twitter highlights here. And, if you’re well organised and blessed by good luck, you might even be in the studio audience, just metres away from darling Malcolm (or darling Samah, or darling Piers).
Whatever else it is and does, Q&A is what people love to talk about more than any other news and current affairs fare. Except, of course, that strange comet called 6PM that burned low in the sky, delivering George Negus to our homes and phones too long before bedtime, but we won’t talk about that.
In my opinion, Q&A, or #qanda for those who prefer to read twitter comments online rather than (or in addition to) the live-to-air program, has two great points in its favour.
First, it deals with a selection of high-profile current political/social issues, often issues that are creating significant debate and conflict in the community. Things like a carbon tax, immigration detention policy, same sex marriage. The mix of issues, the number of panel guests (normally five), and the pace of the program all add up to something if not intellectually stimulating then enjoyable or entertaining.
Second, and equally important, Q&A invites a lot of audience and community participation. When the program first aired, I thought the ABC was wasting the skills of host Tony Jones, who I had grown to appreciate as host of Lateline. But I have come to see that his good humour, sense of timing, and excellent interview skills are just what Q&A needs.
And, by and large, the audience (studio and online) love him. Just mention in company the words, “I’ll take that as a comment,” and see the reaction.
The heavy use of audience questions, video questions, and selected twitter comments posted across the foot of the screen encourage active audience engagement and set Q&A apart from every other program available. Importantly, many questions come across raw, sometimes emotionally loaded, thoughtful, and from the heart. That’s what I like best about Q&A.
Last year I regularly “tuned in” to the program, and sometimes participated in the live tweets (although I’ve never had a tweet appear on screen). Just as engaging as listening to questions and answers was reading the tweets on the #qanda hashtag, or in my own twitter stream. The awesome worth of Twitter as a forum for concise communications between intelligent individuals is nowhere better exemplified than on Monday nights (and through to Tuesday) when Q&A is in season.
This year, to my surprise, some of the so-called “cooler” tweeps decreed that Q&A was so yesterday, and vowed not to watch or tweet it any more. Maybe they were just attention-seeking brats who needed a sugar lift. Anyway, I disregarded their opinion and kept watching (although I missed the John Pilger episode).
That decision has been worthwhile, but I came away from last week’s show with some misgivings, which I tweeted later that evening. Here’s what I said, modified for blog:
So Twitter, tonight’s #qanda confirmed three things to me.
1. The format allows for little more than sound bites and witty one-liners, and serious complex issues like climate change and nuclear energy can’t be treated with the depth they deserve by a diverse panel and audience questions.
2. Tim Flannery is good value as a science communicator but was wasted tonight. Give him the format & time he deserves, @abcmarkscott
3. One Nation Party may be emasculated, and rightly so, but the political and cultural forces that spawned it retain their currency.
Which is to say that, while Q&A is a welcome addition to the full complement of ABC television news and current affairs, and a breath of fresh air in place of the claustrophobic and mind-numbingly irrelevant chaff thrown up by the commercial networks, it does have its limitations.
Having said that, I’ll be watching tonight, and maybe even tweeting from @rod_benson. Piers will be in my crosshairs. See you there.
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On Thursday I joined Australian church leaders in Canberra to demonstrate our united support for poker machine reform in opposition to the powerful pokies lobby organised by clubs and hotels, which make their profit from revenue ripped from the wallets of problem gamblers.
