Are you interested in one week's work placement in The Irish Times? Transition Year students can learn first-hand about the workings of this newspaper if their submission is published in Media Scope's weekly Over to You column. Just send us a 200-word piece on a media-related topic.
Hayley Connell, Scoil Mhuire, Rathstewart, Athy, Co Kildare
Since Cathy Freeman lit the torch at the opening ceremony of the Olympics, the issue of drugs has come into the light. Some 199 nations and 17 days of games put a lot of people under pressure. Because some entrants have to go through heats, many only get to perform once, so every second of this performance counts greatly. It's so important to some that they are willing to trick the world by taking performance-enhancing drugs. Due to new tests many of these people are being caught, but still there are a few that manage to escape. Some people think the athletes who are getting away with it are being helped because they are big stars.
When I discussed this matter with a friend, he said there should be X and Y Olympics - the X Olympics for drug users and the Y Olympics for nonedrug users! Sadly, though, not everyone will own up to taking drugs.
If the Olympics and other major sporting events are getting this doped up, what hope have young children beginning to train now got? The hours they spend preparing may be wasted if they are beaten by dishonesty. By the time they get to compete, how will drugs be viewed in the Olympics? Before the next Olympics in 2004, new drugs may be invented that cannot be traced.
Deirdre O'Shaughnessy, Scoil Pol, Kilfinane, Co Limerick
One aspect of the media which is often ignored is the media's role as a conscience.
The role of the media in exposing corruption is a vital one. What would have happened if the blood contamination scandal had never come to light? How many more innocent lives would have been destroyed?
Other scandals which might never have been discovered without the watchful eye of the press are, of course, the controversies of the mid-1980s and early 1990s. The naked greed would never have been disclosed and the public would have continued to think of Charles Haughey as Ireland's Prince Charming.
Of course, this attentiveness can occasionally be taken too far. Anyone who saw The Truman Show or EdTV when they first graced our cinema screens laughed derisively at "those Americans". They weren't laughing when Big Brother came on the air, made in England, no less (and with two Irish participants).
With the development of the Internet and the ability to send and receive information in the blink of an eye, the media has become an integral part of our society - as necessary and as much a part of daily life as breakfast cereal.
Write to media scope by posting your comments to Newspaper in the Classroom, The Irish Times, 11-16 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2, or faxing them to (01) 679 2789. Be sure to include your name, address and school, plus phone numbers for home and school. Or you can use the Internet and email us at mediapage@irishtimes.ie
media scope is a weekly media studies page for use in schools. Group rates and a special worksheet service (see `faxback', right) are available: FREEPHONE 1-800-798884.
