Using Special Formats for Public Discussion

Occasionally, group discussion takes place in public, in front of an audience. In such a case, group discussion is used to increase audience understanding of a particular issue. Public discussion formats include the symposium, the forum, the panel discussion, the buzz group, and the role-playing group.

The symposium

A symposium is a form of public discussion in which a number of experts give brief, prepared speeches on a topic of general concern. Its purpose is to inform an audience. Although each participant speaks independently, participants often hold planning sessions in advance to decide how to divide up a problem and to determine speaking order. A typical symposium might concern a public issue such as child abuse. A sociologist might be invited to outline the extent and causes of the problem, a psychologist to discuss the symptoms and effects of abuse, a school administrator to speak on the role of teachers in discovering and reporting suspected cases, and a representative of a state agency to describe available intervention programs. The role of a chairperson of a symposium is to introduce the problem, to present each speaker, and to sum up the discussion. The symposium is a fairly formal format that involves little interaction between participants and audience. To encourage more interaction, planners often combine the symposium with another format, the forum.

The Forum

A forum is a much more freewheeling form of discussion than a symposium is. In a forum there are no outside experts; audience members are the discussants. They share their comments and opinions with one another and are led by a moderator whose job is to announce the topic, to provide necessary background information, to set the ground rules for participation, and generally to control the discussion. When a forum follows a symposium, it allows audience members to express their feelings and to add their comments to those of the experts. Much of the success of the discussion lies with the moderator, who must keep the audience on track and make sure everyone is heard. When talk show hosts such as Oprah Winfrey or Phil Donahue go out into the audience to solicit comments, they are using a forum format, although their forums usually follow panel discussions rather than symposia.