Yahoo News today announced the launch of #HashOut, described as a "talk show conducted over social media", which will see questions posed to its Twitter followers and a panel of experts each weekday.
The new project is "focused on sparking debate" in the lead up to the US elections in November, according to a release. Yahoo News will pose daily questions to followers of @YahooNews on Twitter, a community of almost 330,000.
The release adds that #HashOut, which is expected to launch on Monday (20 August), "aims to ignite a daily debate about politics, current news, and buzzing topics between the Yahoo audience and a panel of political influencers, industry thought leaders, Yahoo experts, and journalists", who will also offer answers alongside the community.
"These new programmes aim to drive dynamic conversations about the political and economic issues facing the nation, offer an expanded view from the convention floor, and deliver even more first-source reporting from the campaign trail, inside the Beltway, and beyond," the release adds.
"Building on the success of Yahoo's multi-faceted election coverage thus far, these new initiatives are designed to further engage and activate Yahoo News's audience of more than 80 million users".
The social talk show will see three answers curated and published the next day on the #HashOut page on Yahoo News where "the Yahoo community will vote on the answer they think is best", the release adds.
Many news outlets have also used Twitter to host Q&A chats with their community, where the community asks the questions, such as the BBC which recently ran a Twitter interview with their correspondent Ian Pannell following his return from Syria.
Yahoo News has previously run Facebook chats as well as interactive Twitter projects, such as #sotu140 which asked the community to write President Barack Obama’s speech in a single tweet.
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