#qanda & Twitter | The Future Of TV? | Internet

Watching ABC TV's Q&A while tracking comments on Twitter has become an obligatory combination. Where else can you watch a discussion involving prominent social commentators and review public responses in real time? All you need to do is search twitter.com with the hashtag #qanda and follow the discussion which is always very lively. Q&A is breaking new ground as an interactive forum which allows viewers to participate, not only by asking questions in the studio but by posting questions and video questions to the Q&A website and by creating 'mashups'. Mashups are short, user generated multimedia presentations. The Q&A site offers a large range of video footage which can be downloaded and integrated into a funny political satire. The nature of the program and the site is truly democratic allowing viewers to upload their videos and have have political comments aired on national TV.

Q&A puts punters, pollies and pundits together in the studio to thrash out the hot issues of the week. It's about democracy in action - on Q&A the audience gets to ask the questions. It doesn't matter who you are, or where you're from - everyone can have a go and take it up to our politicians and opinion makers. Energetic and opinionated - Q&A brings Australia's egalitarian and larrikin spirit into the studio. Q&A is about encouraging people to engage with politics and society. Q&A is hosted by one of the ABC's most respected journalists - Tony Jones."

Does Q&A represent the future of television? Before long the distinction between TV screen and computer monitor will cease to exist. One monitor will accommodate a range of purposes. If the same window is to be used for TV and the web, the interactive features of the web will surely become obligatory in television programming. All that is required for this to happen is the introduction of a reliable broadband infrastructure. Internet TV can't possibly replace conventional TV while we're stuck with slow and frequently interrupted connections. Some have commented that Q&A would be a great deal better without politicians. I can't agree. While politicians may not be as interesting and knowledgeable as some of the other distinguished guests that appear; authors, historians, psychologists, journalists, business people, politicians are actually in a position to initiate real change. They may also be held accountable for changes they have or haven't made. They may also reveal a seldom seen human side of themselves. In a recent program, Belinda Neal came across as human, disarming and vulnerable when questioned about her husband, John Della Bosca's infidelity. Ms Neal came across quite differently than the 'do you know who I am?' monster of Iguanagate fame. When asked if he was against an emissions trading scheme, Liberal backbencher Cory Bernardi simply replied yes, before correcting himself to "not this ETS". Q&A seems to be truth provoking by its very nature. It's interesting to notice that coalition politicians are usually given a much rougher time by Q&A audiences than their Labor counterparts. Could this be a result of a continued backlash against unpopular coalition policies? Could it be that Q&A attracts a progressive, socially aware audience that tends to be more sympathetic to left wing politics? Does this mean that coalition supporters are socially ignorant? Perish the thought. Whatever the answer is, coalition politicians generally get a bit of a bashing, although their Labor colleagues seldom emerge completely unscathed. If Q&A does represent the future of television, it would be nice to hope that other interactive programming will be as intelligent and socially aware. Somehow, I doubt this is likely to happen. We are much more likely to see interactive forums spring up around reality shows like Big Brother. Orwell would certainly have seen the irony.