ABSTRACT
The media in the UK are uniquely rich and vivid. It is 'the best of times and the worst of times'. There are newspapers, magazines, radio and television programmes of integrity, wit and subtlety, imbued with a true and rare liberal democratic spirit and written or conducted by people whose aim is finally to help improve society through clarifying its problems or discussing its culture. The most critical issue facing the media's contribution lies in the struggle any wide-ranging catholic reader, listener or viewer has in putting together, from the variety of the reports, any overall view of what we are like as a society today. The new Church, the media, sees a secular world 'out there', a world with no central or essential meaning, a world with no God of immortality or omnipotence, least of all kindness and love to those most in need. The indifferent universe has replaced the divine universe: meaninglessness is the history of today.
