1. In the series of lectures presented in Malcom Muggeridge’s classic book, Christ and the Media, what does he say about the growing power of the media and its ability to reshape society in its own image?
2. Social activist Jerry Rubin, co-founder of the Youth International Party (Yippies), once observed: “On the television screen, news is not so much reported as created.†In his book, how would Muggeridge respond to this observation?
3. According to Muggeridge, how does the medium of television create a “fantasy†that frequently bears little resemblance to “reality†but increasingly transforms it?
4. In his book, Muggeridge quotes Simone Weil’s insight to make his point: “Nothing is so beautiful, nothing is so continually fresh and surprising, so full of sweet and perpetual ecstasy, as the good; no desert is so dreary, monotonous, and boring as evil. But with fantasy it’s the other way round. Fictional good is boring and flat, while fictional evil is varied, intriguing, attractive, and full of charm.†Why did Muggeridge include this quote in his book?
5. In his discussion of advertising, explain Muggeridbge’s assertion that “how can it possibly be doubted that spectacles of carnality and violence likewise affect the viewer?
6. Explain why Muggeridge asserted during his lectures that there would come a time when Christians would be forced to disassociate themselves from TV?
7. Muggeridge, who died 30 years ago, could not have predicted that the public square, which he so highly prized, would become, in real and important ways,
a digital one. Based on his book, how would he, if he were to write a follow-up book, react to today’s digital media in the public square?
8. How does Muggeridge’s book offer the reader a prompt to re-examine the differences between “fantasy†and “reality?†Why does that matter?
9. Muggeridge concludes his media analysis by saying that “the media have, indeed, provided the Devil with perhaps the greatest opportunity accorded him since Adam and Eve were turned out of the Garden of Eden.†How does Christ and the Media force the reader to grapple with the author’s assertion?
10. What is your overall reaction to the Christ and the Media book?
