For those outside Australia (or who aren’t home on Monday nights!), Q&A is a weekly television show that invites politicians, diplomats, journalists and others, onto a panel, where they discuss issues raised primarily by the audience. The audience is both in the studio, watching on television, and online.

What is particularly fascinating about the show is the conversations that take place on Twitter. Some of the tweets (using #qanda) are displayed on-screen during the show (often, I and others have observed with a distinct bias), but there’s a world of conversation on about the show that is visible only to those follow this discussion themselves.

The volume is huge and increasing.

At its peak last night, the show attracted nearly 500 tweets per second – take a look at this 60 second breakdown of the conversations that took place on Twitter.

Why am I sharing this?

To highlight the fact that there are many conversations taking place, about a variety of topics, online. As we seek to understand our culture and our communities, we can ‘listen in’ to these conversations.

What are people saying about Christianity?

About your church?

What brings people joy?

What makes them angry?

What gives them hope?

It’s all out there. We just need to listen.