Live, nationally televised debates

My friend Marvin was just featured on this Vimeo video, and I think he has a point about Icelanders and their love of quizzes. Icelanders like to see someone who knows all the answers to all the questions.

As I have said before, these types of quizzes are not so popular in the US, even on college campuses. There the smart kids show off by being part of a debate club.

It occurs to me that right about now, Iceland would do a lot better off if every Friday night's showing of Útsvar was replaced by lively political debates. They could even use the same set and have the same format, just have the participants be all politicians and have all the questions be about what happened and what should happen for Iceland's future. Run up and grab the bell, show video clips, act out phrases even, but no scoring for having the right answer, and both sides get a chance to answer the same question. This could replace the 10 minute "debates" in Kastljós.

Comments

Anonymous said…
No way! I, for one would never even think of watching a show like that. Get enough of them anyway. Love Útsvar but gave up watching Gettu betur years ago.
Lissy said…
Hahaha, Hildigunnur! I was of course sort of kidding, but my point is that in the United States, live television is used much more often by politicians, and to extremely good affect. Perhaps I have just missed it, but in the almost 2 years Johanna has been in office, I have never heard her "address the nation" directly on live TV the way Obama does periodically, nor have I heard Ólafur do that either. They address the Althingi, and then the news tells us what they said. There is no reason in this day and age, with the technology we have, that politicians cannot simply broadcast their message directly. Jón Gnarr knows this, which is why he started a blog. Jóhanna needs to do something to show she is interested in engaging directly with people outside the Althingi.
Valur said…
Marvin is pretty smart and cool.

Varðandi samskipti Jóhönnu við þjóðina þá hafði hún fyrst um sinn vikulega fjölmiðlafundi með Steingrími eftir að hún var kosin forsætisráðherra. Þeir eru ennþá nokkuð reglulega haldnir held ég. Slíkt var ekki upp á teningnum í fyrri ríkisstjórninni.

Hér á Íslandi er lítil hefð fyrir ávörpum forsætisráðherra og forseta nema þá bara einu sinni ári. Það mætti mögulega vera oftar.

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