Facing the Challenge of Television
We spend twelve years of our lives in front of the television. It shapes what we think and how we live. Media critic Kenneth Myers calls television 'the single most significant shared reality of our entire society.' This new course from Focus Radio is designed to help us think through how it's influencing us - and how we can use it positively. For home groups, cell groups, adult Sunday Schools, Christian Unions and individuals.
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'It is vital that we, as Christians, understand the
dynamics of television, the exact processes by which it has the dramatic
influence that it does and then, on back of this understanding, how we
can work for change so that we can use its influence constructively.
This new course from Focus Radio is an excellent resource to help us
do just this. I wholeheartedly commend it to you.'
Charlie Colchester, International Director, CARE
Read what other people are saying about 'Facing the Challenge of Television'
Who is it for?
This course is designed for home groups, cell groups, adult Sunday Schools, Christian Unions, churches, colleges and individuals.
What's in it?
In eight fifty-minute sessions, 'Facing the Challenge of Television' covers:
- Creating our world
- Stealing our lives
- Causing 'truth decay'
- Distorting reality
- Junk food for the soul
- Pollution for the imagination
- Fuel for our prayers
- Points of contact for the Good News
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Free downloads
You can 'try before you buy,' by downloading session 2, 'Stealing our Lives,' free of charge, from: www.facingthechallenge.org/stealing.pdf
You can also download the introduction to the Leaders' Guide free, from: www.facingthechallenge.org/tvcourseintro.pdf
Downloading the course
This course is available as a download (pdf file) only. The download is a single file of about 1 MB in size. You will need Adobe Reader® on your computer to view and print this course.
How to download
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Your credit card payment is processed by Worldpay. On the payment pages, you will be asked to give your mailing address to authenticate your credit card, even though you are buying the course as a download. You can safely ignore the 'shipping and handling details' and 'general information' sections.
When you have completed your online payment, you will be taken to the Worldpay receipt page. This includes a link called 'view merchant receipt' (ringed in red on the screen image below):
Click on this link, and it will bring you back to our online store on a page confirming your purchase. This page includes a link called 'click here to download' - ringed in red below:
Important note: the download file remains available for five days (120 hours) from the time you place your order. You may find it helpful to right click on the link (circled in red) and save the URL in case you need to return to the download later. (If you have problems downloading the file, or if you run out of time, please contact us, and we will do our best to help. However, it is up to you to complete the download within the available time.)
Click on the 'click here to download' link, and it will open the 'Facing the Challenge of Television' Leader's Guide in an Adobe Reader window.
Save a copy of the file straight away in a convenient location! (The 'save a copy' button is located in the top left corner of the Adobe Reader window.)
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Disclaimer
Focus Radio sells the downloadable version of 'Facing the Challenge of Television' in good faith. However, we can not guarantee that it will run on any particular system. In the event that you are unable to run it on your system, our liability is limited to refunding what you have paid to download the course.
Useful links
mediawatch-uk – 'Actively campaigning for accountability and public participation in broadcasting.'
The Office of Communications media literacy pages: www.ofcom.org.uk/advice/media_literacy/
White Dot – the international campaign against television, www.whitedot.org
TV Turnoff web site: www.tvturnoff.org - 'Empowering people to take control of technology and not letting technology take control of them so they can live healthier lives.'
Media Research Center web site: www.mediaresearch.org
Written from a politically right-wing American perspective, this site is
very interesting for how it depicts media bias.