Sunday, November 10, 2013 at 2.30pm

The innovative Big Picture Debate has become a feature of BOFA following its success  in 2011 and 2012.  In 2013 it is planned to take on the challenging issue of the impacts – positive and negative – of our addiction to screens in today’s society. Smart-phones, iPods, tablets, computers and TVs are wrecking our attention spans, triggering depression, and a sedentary lifestyle linked to heart disease, strokes etc. Video game and internet addictions create emotional shutdown, lack of concentration and withdrawal symptoms. Screens are hammering the cinema and TV, with global content destroying national identity & local film industries. Digital books, magazines and newspapers are destroying traditional publishing.

BUT is it really so bad? After all, we are more connected to the world than we have ever been. Social media has the power to change public – and politicians – opinions. The best of the world’s entertainment is a click away. Digital books, magazines and newspapers have made access to information cheaper and more democratic. Screen based stories can now be made on DSLR cameras, even smart phones, making everyone a potential film maker.

A stellar cast of thinkers will be assembled at BOFA 2013 to examine the matter and help us decide. The debate will be filmed, live edited and uploaded to the internet via YouTube, identifying the panel discussion as from BOFA in Launceston, Tasmania. Communities anywhere will be able to download the discussion live and then debate it locally. Viewers will be able to vote by SMS on whether they feel, on balance, that our addiction to using screens is destroying us or enhancing us.

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Highlights from BOFA 2012

Big Picture Debate 2012

The 2012 topic social media does more harm than good was robustly discussed in front of a live audience at the Festival Hub, QVMAG Inveresk, with prominent Australian speakers like high profile comedian, author and broadcaster Catherine Deveny, who recently appeared on the SBS programme Go Back to Where You Came From and who is a well known user of social media. Other speakers included Lynden Barber, film journalist and leading thinker on the role of social media, Karen Pickering editor of feminist magazine Cherchez la Femme and  Paul Oosting, campaign manager of social activism group GetUp.

The discussion was hosted by Simon Longstaff of the St James Ethics Centre, Sydney.

Supported by news clips and other visual material, Simon Longstaff  used a hypothetical scenario to challenge the panel with the pros and cons of this powerful new channel for opinion and comment, which is affecting the way everyone interacts and thinks today.  The result was an engaging and entertaining hour of debate and discussion on an issue that is dividing opinion around the world.

Southern Cross and Telstra filmed the debate uploading it live to the internet via YouTube, identifying the panel discussion as from BOFA in Launceston, Tasmania. Hobart’s MONA  downloaded the discussion live at their Eros and Thanatos Room. Viewers had the opportunity to vote on whether they felt, on balance, social media was more of a force for good or causes more harm than good. Votes were by SMS making the event a true “breath of fresh air” in terms of audience participation world-wide.

The debate video is now available at the Big Picture Debate website to watch.

It is planned that The Big Picture Debate will also be broadcast early in 2013 across Australia and Asia-Pacific by the ABC, via ABC1, Australia Network and podcast. Specific venues such as Federation Square Melbourne are interested in screening the panel session in 2013 as well.

Big Picture Debate 2011

The 2011 debate – The Screen is Mightier than the Sword – was broadcast nationally via ABC1, internationally on the Australia Network and podcast on abc.net.au in February 2012.

Hosted by Simon Longstaff of the St James Ethics Centre speakers included:

• Scott Rhodie – Digital Communications Manager for National Broadband Network Co.and an organiser of Digital Citizens
• Major General (ret’d) Jim Molan– Coalition’s Chief of Operations in Iraq and author ‘Running the War in Iraq’
• Jonathan auf der Heide – Actor, Writer, Teacher and Director (‘Van Diemen’s Land’ 2009. ‘Hells Gates’ 2008)
• Trish Lake – Producer, Freshwater Pictures, ex-President of Screen Producers Association of Australia
• Marcia Langton – Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies, The University of Melbourne and actress ‘Here I Am’
• Dr Natasha Cica – Director, Inglis Clark Centre for Civil Society, University of Tasmania, social columnist on culture/politics