By
Jan Schaffer
J-Lab Executive Director
April 15, 2004
So
you
think you know where you stand on major issues of the moment? Unshakable
in your opinion? Grounded in fact? Unpersuadable in argument?
Click
around "You Decide,"
the news and public affairs exercise produced by San Francisco's KQED
that is steadily growing its constituency. "We say it's the online
devil's advocate that takes on national issues," says Sean Fagan,
senior producer, interactive, at the public broadcaster. "That
was the original intention."
| Pick
your topic
Should Saddam Hussein be executed?
Should fast food companies be held legally liable for the impact
of their products on consumers' health?
Should the United States replace the Electoral College system
with a direct democracy?
Should the United States adopt a single-payer, universal health
care plan?
|
Simple
questions.
Answer
"yes" and your stance will be keenly tested. "Are you
sure?" the exercise challenges you. "What if you knew . .
." and then it launches into a weighty reason to support the countervailing
view.
Succumb
to that reasoning and click "no" and you'll get the flip side
of the argument.
"Some
people really think this thing is arguing with them," Fagan adds.
"We get heated emails, then we ask them to check the opposite answers
to get the arguments on the other side . . . It's that sort of under-your-skin
thing that really makes it work."
"You
Decide" declares that "nothing about these subjects is black
and white." Much of the credit for the meatiness of the positions
goes to freelance reporter Melissa Joulwan of Austin, TX, who reports
and writes them to prod critical thinking. All her sources are cited
at the end of each exercise.
"We don't editorialize," says Fagan. "We just put forward
all the opinions that have been put forward in the public sphere."
Sept.
11 Legacy
KQED
started "You Decide" right after September 11. "I felt
this desire to do something that addressed the issues coming up but
address them in a critical thinking kind of way," Fagan says.
Now
it is syndicated to 13 other public radio sites. Salon.com
picks up various issues.
The
template has been used for two
local ballot questions and some documentary
programming.
The
By the People initiative
has also used it in the community as a deliberative poll.
A
Teachers Guide accompanies most segments. Many of the archived exercises
have been updated to reflect new public debate. A Corporation for Public
Broadcasting grant supports the reporting and some of the design work.
The
Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet and the Online News
Association have honored "You Decide."
Fagan
says as many as 1,400 users complete each exercise but KQED counts as
many as 5,000 unique sessions lasting an average of five to six minutes.
Discussion boards allow for even more debate. Traffic is higher on Salon.com.
It's
typical for users to second-guess themselves and switch to the opposite
answer at least once during the exercise, Fagan says. At the end, you
deliver your final position and "You Decide" tells you how
you stack up in the poll of other players.
Future
issues will include: Should America send a manned mission to Mars? Do
Americans pay too much in federal income tax?
Fagan says he knows the "You Decide" questions are the "wrong
questions" but they are the ones fanning the debate. "People
say, 'Shouldn't public radio ask the complex questions?' But this way
you see how complex the issue really is."
"People
come back rewording what the questions should have been," Fagan
observes. "That, to me, is the goal."
