Transition Year students can win a week's work placement in The Irish Times. Send us your thoughts (200 words maximum) on a media-related topic - if your submission is published, the placement is yours.
Please note: there are virtually no places left for students between now and the end of March. You should enter `over to you' only if a later placement can be arranged.
Neasa Cunniffe, Loreto College, Foxrock, Dublin
What child of this generation, with our patented short attention span, would make the voyage into a book when instant transportation is available simply by switching on the television?
When all the most popular children's stories, from Charles Dickens to Roald Dahl, have been transferred from page to screen, it's no wonder the art of reading is deteriorating.
This increasing lack of appreciation for good literature has allowed standards in the written word for young people to sink dramatically. This is most evident in teenage magazines, the favoured literature of this age group.
On opening these over-priced magazines, we are met with captions like: "U crayzee laydeez lurve our bargainous clobber!" I still harbour doubts, despite assurances, that the language used in these magazines is English. Having thoroughly thumbed the dictionary, I have yet to come across the words "bargainous" and "lurve". In a spirit of rebellion, I would urge teenagers to rise in insult against these magazines, which think so little of our intelligence that they would reduce us to the level of six-year-olds who are taught to read phonetically: "cray-zee lay-deez". Take it slowly now.
Paul Dillon, St Mary's Diocesan School, Drogheda, Co Louth
There are those who question the value of the media. They are either (1) ill-informed, (2) corrupt or (3) Ray Burke.
The true value of the media becomes apparent only when we consider the role it has played in society. From the sexual revolution of the 1960s through to the current movement, slow as it may be, of Ireland's masculinity towards a change in perspective, the media has played a pivotal role.
The media has long since replaced government as the people's watchdog. Be it NIB, corrupt politicians or tribunals, someone is watching - and it ain't the Revenue Commissioners. It's good to know, isn't it? A recent Sunday Independent/ IMS poll showed the people of Ireland place more trust in journalists than in politicians, the legal profession, bishops or the clergy.
Ireland has a free, vibrant and informed media. Long may it remain such, and may we be grateful for it. Because no one else is going to do its job.
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@irish-times.ie.
media scope is a weekly media studies page for use in schools. Group rates and a special worksheet service are available: FREEPHONE 1-800-798884 (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.). media scope is edited by Harry Browne.
