How the BBC solicits questions on shows such as Question Time interests me. At the moment David Dimbleby has questions picked for him by researchers, you know, where he asks an audience member in particular, or he goes rogue and picks somebody from the audience himself. As such it could be argued that the questions that get thrown to the panel is down to luck, or what the researchers and producers of the show deem to be relevant to ask.
To me this seems like a bit of wasted opportunity. The audience doesn’t really collaborate with each other on the questions as, say, a team of journalists might do (think the Frost/Nixon interviews). Plus, it seems to be at the whim of the producers/researchers or the host himself what questions do get asked, rather than a specified metric of how many in the audience want the question to be asked.
So, hypothetically, if the audience was given notice that a guest was appearing on a show, an online place to share, modify, vote and discuss questions that the host should ask. Could we get some deep, probing and more relevant questions asked by an organised connected audience? Could we surface burning and evidence backed questions that have yet to be asked?
I wouldn’t mind exploring that as an online system. We could just end up with lists of inane questions about people’s favourite biscuits, but, if done right it could work.
Something like this might also work for a lighter subject area too, take music artist interviews, or even as part of a follow up to a documentary. I always have questions about what the hell Brian Cox was talking about in his latest wonders of the universe programme. If these questions could be submitted, the best ones go to the top and a quick online question and answer session to camera filmed. Could this prove to be a powerful and engaging online proposition?
My mind then got thinking about how many questions broadcasters ask. How many responses they get. It’s a phenomenal amount. Think about all those interviews on tv news alone, and its all undiscoverable on the web. I can’t find out all when interviews that took place with a certain person. I can’t go through listen/watch/read them. If you could, think about how well thought out any new questions you propose could be.