By Terry Hart
On Monday 25 September, 11 members of U3A Nunawading, some other local residents and a group of students from Wantirna College ventured to the ABC Southbank studios. We had been invited to be part of the audience for the Q+A program.
It was a fascinating experience to see how a live TV program goes to air with all the organisation, personnel, and equipment that makes it possible.
The Q&A audience perspective
The program covered a range of questions that were submitted from the members of the audience. While the panel members were frustrating at times, there were some productive exchanges of opinions and opportunities to see a problem from differing perspectives. It was clear that the producers, and the presenter (Patricia Karvelas) are committed to the worthy ideal of providing a platform for anyone to pose questions to community leaders and have them considered in a public forum.
After the program, in a segment not broadcast, Patricia spoke to some of the audience members who had asked questions to see how they felt about the responses they received. That gave these audience members the chance to elaborate on the issues that were concerning them and to comment on the adequacy (or otherwise!) of the answers.
The perils of live TV
We did experience some of the realities of live TV. The preceding Four Corners program went over time, and we felt sorry for the lively and entertaining stand-up comedian who was entertaining us, having to fill in extra time without being able to use the material she would normally use in her routines. Her name is Jacqui Mifsud and she appears in live venues around Melbourne.
Thank you
Thank you to Elsie for accepting the invitation from the ABC and the entertaining and informative outing we had. It was also good to see the Wantirna students getting involved, and significantly lowering the average age of the party.
