Full Version: Question Time
The long-standing BBC political debate show, Question Time, has recently begun to put it's most recent broadcast on the web. You can find a link here (where there is a "video" icon with the text "latest programme" next to it - you'll need RealPlayer to watch. It's the whole show, which lasts an hour.)
The show airs live, each Thursday evening, from a different location around the UK (and occasionally abroad; it came from the USA during the presidential election this year, and from Paris when the French referendum on the EU constitution was due).
The current format is as follows - five personalities sit on a panel. Current UK politics means that at least one will be from the government benches of the Labour party, one from the Conservatives, and one form the Liberal Democrats. The most senior politicians (e.g. Prime Minister & other main party leaders) rarely appear, except in special programmes just before the election, but they do appear and don't get any special treatment (they aren't allowed earpieces or teleprompters, for example).
The other two will be made up from other personalities - this week's show has a leading journalist and a novelist/tv presenter. Other shows have featured other leading figures of various kinds - for example civil liberty or racial campaigners, Green or other minority politicians, newspaper or magazine editors, senior policemen, religious or community leaders, and so on. Sometimes they'll even have a well-known actor or comedian on the show (though they are usually ones that have some kind of "serious side" in charity or campaign work, and aren't there just to tell jokes).
The panel are then asked unscripted questions by the invited audience (made up from the general public - people just apply for tickets by phoning or online) and have to answer them as best they can. While they do not know exactly which questions they will be asked, they should usually be able to guess most of them based on current events, but will still not know the thrust of the question, even if they can anticipate the subject.
The show is pretty much taken for granted here. I think we'd miss it if it went, and only political junkies (like most of us here
) watch it week in week out, but I would imagine most people in the UK with access to a TV have or will watch it at least once in their lifetime. And it's one of the few public fora in the UK where ordinary men and women get to ask their own questions of our country's leaders, hear the responses, and give their own opinions back.
Now that viewers around the world can easily watch QT without access to a cable BBC TV channel, I thought it would be a good time to ask a few questions:
Does your country have anything like Question Time? Should it have one?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the format?
Who would you want to see on your dream QT panel?
The show airs live, each Thursday evening, from a different location around the UK (and occasionally abroad; it came from the USA during the presidential election this year, and from Paris when the French referendum on the EU constitution was due).
The current format is as follows - five personalities sit on a panel. Current UK politics means that at least one will be from the government benches of the Labour party, one from the Conservatives, and one form the Liberal Democrats. The most senior politicians (e.g. Prime Minister & other main party leaders) rarely appear, except in special programmes just before the election, but they do appear and don't get any special treatment (they aren't allowed earpieces or teleprompters, for example).
The other two will be made up from other personalities - this week's show has a leading journalist and a novelist/tv presenter. Other shows have featured other leading figures of various kinds - for example civil liberty or racial campaigners, Green or other minority politicians, newspaper or magazine editors, senior policemen, religious or community leaders, and so on. Sometimes they'll even have a well-known actor or comedian on the show (though they are usually ones that have some kind of "serious side" in charity or campaign work, and aren't there just to tell jokes).
The panel are then asked unscripted questions by the invited audience (made up from the general public - people just apply for tickets by phoning or online) and have to answer them as best they can. While they do not know exactly which questions they will be asked, they should usually be able to guess most of them based on current events, but will still not know the thrust of the question, even if they can anticipate the subject.
The show is pretty much taken for granted here. I think we'd miss it if it went, and only political junkies (like most of us here
) watch it week in week out, but I would imagine most people in the UK with access to a TV have or will watch it at least once in their lifetime. And it's one of the few public fora in the UK where ordinary men and women get to ask their own questions of our country's leaders, hear the responses, and give their own opinions back. Now that viewers around the world can easily watch QT without access to a cable BBC TV channel, I thought it would be a good time to ask a few questions:
Does your country have anything like Question Time? Should it have one?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the format?
Who would you want to see on your dream QT panel?
I suppose the closest things that we have to this in the USA are the long-running television series Meet the Press and Face the Nation.
Face the Nation
Meet the Press
The main difference between these series and Question Time seems to be the fact that the people asking the questions are professional journalists and not members of the general public. Maybe reporters can ask better questions, but I would love for average citizens to be able to ask questions directly to politicians and other power brokers.
Dream panel? Well, how about representatives from the GOP, the Democratic Party, the Libertarian Party, and the Green Party. I would also throw in a "wild card" in the form of a highly regarded artist, writer, scientist, or some other renowned figure in a field other than politics.
Face the Nation
QUOTE
Face the Nation is one of the longest-running news programs in the history of television, having premiered on CBS on November 7, 1954.
Each Sunday, CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer interviews newsmakers on the latest issues. The program broadcasts from Washington, D.C., where Schieffer has spent more than 25 years covering government and politics. He has anchored Face the Nation since 1991.
Guests include government leaders, politicians, and international figures in the news. CBS News correspondents engage the guests in a lively roundtable discussion focusing on current topics.
Each Sunday, CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer interviews newsmakers on the latest issues. The program broadcasts from Washington, D.C., where Schieffer has spent more than 25 years covering government and politics. He has anchored Face the Nation since 1991.
Guests include government leaders, politicians, and international figures in the news. CBS News correspondents engage the guests in a lively roundtable discussion focusing on current topics.
Meet the Press
QUOTE
NBC News' "Meet the Press" consistently generates headlines as a result of its interviews with world-renowned guests for over 57 years. Tim Russert , NBC News' Washington Bureau Chief, has moderated the venerable television institution since December 8, 1991.
The history of "Meet the Press" is an illustrious one. Currently in our 58th year, "Meet the Press" is the longest-running program on network television. "Meet the Press" premiered on NBC-TV on November 6, 1947, and made its debut two years earlier as a radio program with Martha Rountree and Lawrence Spivak as producers. For almost as long as there has been television - there has been "Meet the Press".
The history of "Meet the Press" is an illustrious one. Currently in our 58th year, "Meet the Press" is the longest-running program on network television. "Meet the Press" premiered on NBC-TV on November 6, 1947, and made its debut two years earlier as a radio program with Martha Rountree and Lawrence Spivak as producers. For almost as long as there has been television - there has been "Meet the Press".
The main difference between these series and Question Time seems to be the fact that the people asking the questions are professional journalists and not members of the general public. Maybe reporters can ask better questions, but I would love for average citizens to be able to ask questions directly to politicians and other power brokers.
Dream panel? Well, how about representatives from the GOP, the Democratic Party, the Libertarian Party, and the Green Party. I would also throw in a "wild card" in the form of a highly regarded artist, writer, scientist, or some other renowned figure in a field other than politics.
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