Fiona Bruce: Question Time is necessary in the era of social media "news"
Writing for Radio Times, the presenter of the BBC's long-running political debate show explains why the format is more vital than ever.
What Question Time does is unique - have a panel of politicians from different parties face questions from an audience with views spanning the political spectrum. Add to that panel a mix of business people, commentators, authors, journalists - also with differing political opinions - and it can be pretty lively and distinctly challenging for the politicians. They never know in advance what the questions will be, and often neither do I.
Our aim has always been to take people out of their echo chamber. We know that online algorithms mean we can end up having our social media feeds tailored to stories that reinforce our view of the world - a newer and far more powerful version of what newspapers have always done to a limited extent. But social media has put booster rockets on it. And where's the fact checking? There's no attempt to verify most of it.
I find it incredibly frustrating, and I don't know what the answer is. All I know is I've worked at the BBC since 1989, and although we don't get things right all the time, we try incredibly hard to check our sources and stay unbiased.
I've got a framed screenshot of two tweets posted during an episode of Question Time. The first says "Fiona Bruce is taking this programme to the right of Genghis Khan," and the second says, "Fiona Bruce is so far left, she's left of Trotsky."
One way of interpreting that is that I'm walking a line somewhere in the middle. But it's so important for people, whatever their views are, to feel that you are telling them what is happening in a way that is as unbiased as possible. People's trust in journalism is fading and that's partly because of the explosion of online conspiracies, untruths, and fake stories.
I read the news voraciously. It's a really important part of the job to try and be across as much as I can from as many sources as possible. My instinct is always to ask, "Is this true?" And with social media, exponentially so.
But it's worrying that social media is being increasingly used as a news source. It's not just a problem for journalists, it's a problem for all of us. And once a fake story is out there, it's almost impossible to correct. I know, I've tried. Good luck trying to get anything taken down from X, as Twitter is now known.
For example, there's a really common trope that Nigel Farage has been on Question Time more than any other politician in recent times. Untrue. Since 2019 he's only been on a standard Question Time once and then in two general election leadership programmes. A politician from the Green Party recently claimed online that Farage has been on Question Time more times than the Green Party in the last five years or so. The truth is, that particular person has been on more often than Nigel Farage and the Green Party overall even more frequently.
Myself, the editor, the BBC - we all keep an eye on representation on the show. It's a constant recalibration of the panel: how many Labour, Conservative, Lib Dems, SNP, Greens etc? We also think about how many men versus women we've had on the panel, people from different ages and ethnic backgrounds.
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Inviting someone on to the panel doesn't always mean that I can make them answer everyone's questions though. It's hardly new but obviously frustrating when politicians avoid a question. I'll often have several attempts to get an answer or I may say to the audience member, "Did you feel that answered your question?" to enable us to have another shot at it. But what I don't want to do is create ill temper or nastiness. It's a robust and often passionate debate but no one needs to shout.
Every now and then we consider having a panel made up of non-politicians, of experts instead - as a Radio Times reader recently suggested. While it's tempting, and there can be a place for that on specific occasions, one of the main points of Question Time is to hold power to account. The Question Time audience likes to be able to ask those in government, "Why aren't you doing this?" or the opposition, "What would you do about that?"
We're looking to take Question Time to the United States ahead of their election this year, something I've never done, and I'm told they don't have a programme like ours. I think the way in which we represent a broad political spectrum and challenge the views of the audience is unique - I can't wait to see what they make of it across the pond...
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Read more:
- Kirsty Wark on leaving Newsnight and her new role presenting Front Row
- Tom Bradby on surviving Election Night: 'You feel like you've been punched in the face for eight hours'
Question Time returns to BBC One at 10:40pm on Thursday 19th September.
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