A Fred Friendly Seminar, produced by Mark Ganguzza, will be taped as a centerpiece of BPS 2008 and aired nationally on public television at a later date. Fred Friendly Seminars are based on Socratic dialogue techniques that have been refined by the Fred Friendly organization over the years to explore critical issues and legitimate but differencing points of view. Unlike many contemporary issues oriented programs, the objective is to encourage people to talk to each other rather than shouting past one another. They are powerful, dramatic and educational vehicles by which preconceptions can be challenged, and public and private notions of energy sustainability and our environment can be re-examined. Through the Seminars and intensively coordinated outreach activities, this project aims to reach critical target audiences - the general public and key opinion leaders and decision makers (especially policymakers and journalists) — with transforming messages about the world's current state of energy consumption, and possible ways of encouraging people from around the world to embrace sustainable energy.
The Fred Friendly Seminars -- housed at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism -- and Blue Planet Foundation in Honolulu share a commitment to fostering an international discussion on the future of our planet and the world's commitment to sustainable energy. These two groups will work together to develop an integrated project centered on a Fred Friendly Socratic Dialogue produced for public television, and an extensive community and professional educational outreach campaign. All phases of the comprehensive project will be informed by the latest research and policy developments and will be designed to move beyond preconceptions to a more fact-based, realistic and consensus-building way to approach these important issues.
Fred Friendly Seminars
"Our purpose is to make the agony of decision-making so intense that one can escape only by thinking." - Fred W. Friendly
The objective of The Fred Friendly Seminars is not to change minds or to support a particular point of view; rather it is to open minds to the complexity and ambiguity of issues facing contemporary society. The Seminars begin by painting "little pictures" — dilemmas or conflicts that almost any viewer might confront in their lives — and end with an informed and emotionally compelling exploration of the large ethical, legal and public policy questions at the heart of a well-functioning democratic society.
It is the unique Socratic Dialogue format that makes the programs so distinctive and engaging. The meticulously prepared narrative hypothetical scripts, the trained and accomplished moderators and the carefully cast panels, under the direction of the renowned production team, result in television programs of unrivaled spontaneity, freshness, immediacy and depth. For the audiences, the fascination of these Seminars comes, in part, from seeing panelists struggle to find their way through issues with no final or "best" answer. The broader success of the Seminars consists in compelling viewers to confront these knotty but essential problems in their own minds.
In addition to the Socratic Dialogue format, The Fred Friendly Seminars are distinguished by the thorough research process used to find and frame the best issues. As each program is developed, producers conduct extensive background and historical research; they engage in an intensive interview process with a broad range of key players; and they draw on the expertise both of specially recruited content advisors in relevant fields and of the moderators affiliated with the Seminars. The hundreds of hours of research and interviews allow producers to identify potential panelists who will provide the range of views required for the television panel, and help prioritize issues essential to the hypothetical scenario.
The hypothetical itself is a detailed script or "roadmap" that the moderator puts forward to the panelists over the course of the seminar. As this script is being developed, the moderators and advisors repeatedly vet it. It is not, however, shared with the panelists. A rehearsal of the hypothetical case with the moderator and a group of expert "run-through" panelists serves to further evaluate the effectiveness and accuracy of the scenario. This in-depth research procedure puts each Socratic Dialogue to the test in several different ways before it is completed. The result is a scenario that is relevant, spontaneous, compelling and dilemma-driven.
During the television taping, the roving moderator compels panelists to decide how they would act in complicated situations where the "right" choices are not always clear. Because the question, "What would you do?" is different from, "What do you think about such-and-such?" and because the dynamics are controlled by a skilled moderator, participants find it difficult to evade the subtlety and perplexity of the issues. As panelists wrestle with the hypothetical and as vague opinion gives way to the need for decisions, the drama created illuminates complex questions in a stimulating, compelling and entertaining way.
Visit fredfriendly.org for more information.
Production Team
Frank Sesno is a veteran broadcast journalist, providing enterprise reporting and analysis for the network on a wide range of issues that touch people's lives. An Emmy-award winning journalist, Sesno formerly served as CNN's Washington, D.C. bureau chief. Sesno's reporting can be seen network-wide including on CNN Presents, the network's flagship documentary program. Mr. Sesno is also a professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University.
Mark Ganguzza has been involved in the production of major TV news programs and special events for the last 35 years. After almost 13 years at CBS he moved on to independent production of many different and widely recognized projects for PBS (Fred Friendly Seminars, various Bill Moyers programs, WideAngle, Charlie Rose), BBC, Lifetime, and many national foundations and associations. Mr. Ganguzza's work has received many awards, the most recent being a 2003 Alfred I. duPont Silver Baton award.
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