The Agenda

The Agenda with Steve Paikin
Presented by Steve Paikin
Country of origin Canada
No. of episodes unknown
Broadcast
Original channel TVO
Picture format NTSC (480i)
Original run 2006 – present
Chronology
Preceded by Studio 2[1]
External links
Website

The Agenda with Steve Paikin, or The Agenda, is the flagship current affairs program of TVOntario (TVO), Ontario’s public broadcaster. Anchor Steve Paikin states that the show practices long-form journalism. Each hour-long program covers no more than two topics.

The show airs weekdays on TVO at 8 and 11 pm, and episodes are available on demand at the show website and through mobile media.

History

The program's creation was announced as part of programming and re-structuring changes at TVO on 29 June 2006.[1] It replaced Studio 2, a current affairs program that was hosted by Paikin and Paula Todd.[1]

In 2012, TVO restructured its program lineup, terminating the programs Allan Gregg in Conversation and Big Ideas.[2] Some lectures that would have been broadcast via Big Ideas were instead covered by the Agenda.[2] The network also devoted more resources to expanding the program "as a multi-platform hub for civic engagement in the big issues of the day".[2]

Journalist Piya Chattopadhyay is the program's primary substitute anchor when Paikin is absent.

Program

Shows broadcast on Thursday are called Your Agenda, during which viewers can participate in online chats or offer their opinions to producers via Twitter. In 2010, The Agenda introduced a weekly five-minute "essay" by various personalities at the start of every Thursday show.

On the last Thursday of each month, The Agenda with Steve Paikin broadcasts live from the University of Toronto Munk Centre for International Studies, and focuses on world issues. Paikin takes questions from the live audience during the broadcast. Viewers may ask questions to the program's guests in a post-program online chat.

In 2008–09, The Agenda broadcast live in front of audiences from communities throughout Ontario, a feature called On the Road focusing on that community's economy. Each stop of the tour included an AgendaCamp, a community forum held the day before the live regional broadcast. The show took to the road again in 2010 to ask people in the southwestern, eastern and northern regions of Ontario to contribute ideas on the most important issues facing the province and specifically their region in the new economy.

In October 2009, the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo hosted the world’s top scientists at the Quantum to Cosmos (Q2C) Festival. TVO was the presenting media partner, and episodes of The Agenda that week featured guests attending Q2C to discuss and debate the latest thinking on a number of issues in science such as space travel, the future of computing, genetics, robotics and the importance of science in a skeptical age.

Website

The Agenda's website provides access to past episodes, podcasts, and the show’s blogs The Inside Agenda and The Fifth Column, as well as Paikin's blog. Video blogs, timelines of key events, slide shows, and polls, surveys and statistics are also available online.

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 TVOntario to cancel Studio 2.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 TVO announces plan that looks to future.

References

External links