A Very Dangerous Q&A : QandA Adventures in Democracy : Llewellyn Millhouse

An adventure in democracy, Greg Sheridan

A Very Dangerous Q&A : QandA Adventures in Democracy

QandA on the ABC, 9:35pm Monday 03/10/2011

Guests :
Slavoj Zizek, cultural critical theory academic and Marxist philosopher.
Kate Adie, journalist and former Chief News Correspondent to the BBC.
Jon Ronson, psychology academic, author, and TV presenter.
Mona Eltahawy, Arab and Muslim issues academic and columnist for Canada's Toronto Star.
Greg Sheridan, foreign affairs academic and senior journalist for The Australian.

A Very Dangerous QandA was the title of this week’s installment of the popular ABC television talk show QandA. Taking its guest list and title from Sydney’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas, A Very Dangerous QandA purported to provide a “dangerous” alternative viewpoint on the topics of suppressed sexual energy, the rewarding of psychopathic behaviour in capitalist economics, the “Arab spring” of democracy in Egypt, and capitalism as cultural evolution.

Panelists performing and having fun

On the QandA website, the ABC promote the goal of the talk show as enacting ‘Public democracy, open dialogue, and transparency…’ suggesting that ‘Q&A is about encouraging people to engage with politics and society.’ (ABC 2011)* By opening up an opportunity for philosophy, politics and culture to be discussed in a non-scripted, real-time, interactive and live situation, QandA represents a radical departure from the homogenous public sphere of mass media. In opposition against mainstream news, where politics and current affairs are aimed safely at passive target audiences, QandA establishes an intellectual discourse that attempts to represent all sides of an argument, instigating debate and popular agreement/democracy through audience jeering. Featuring a panel of experts, journalists and politicians, a live studio audience puts forward topics of discussion through which the panel can perform their expertise and disseminate their political agenda. In this fashion, the structure of the show mimics the structure of the governmental democratic forum. In contrast to this system, the unique value of QandA lies in its occasional representation of peripheral and alternative viewpoints, providing an opportunity through the key medium of popular cultural hegemony to be critical of society and hegemonic values. For this reason, the prospect of A Very Dangerous QandA and the inclusion of the “rockstar” Marxist critic Slavoj Zizek on the panel of experts was very exciting for me.

Although the hour-long show was entertaining, with Zizek and the other panelists continually contributing interesting criticism and commentary, the overall impression of A Very Dangerous QandA was safety, control and neutralization of criticality. By operating within the medium of television and of performing expertise and self-promotion within democratic debate, whatever critical or dangerous ideas which were addressed fell short on the passive ears of the spectators in the audience and at home. As the function of the television show is ultimately entertainment, whether in the form of intellectual debate or Neighbours-like drama, QandA creates a space in which the spectator can have criticality internalized and made safe within spectacular performance.
‘Is this not what we are doing here, reaching for fetishisation of extreme ideological positions on television…’ (Ronson, 42mins into episode)*
By reifying alternative viewpoints and critical theory (showcasing “extreme and dangerous” ideas and presenting them as happy debate that you can passively watch on television next to or instead of other performed spectacles) QandA makes dangerous ideas safe. Although it is the best show on TV, and despite its appearingly earnest attempts, it cannot escape its complicity with the medium.


* ABC QandA website, about page, http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/about.htm
* Episode available for download from above site