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 - if it's published, the placement is yours.
Kate O'Hanlon, Manor House School, Raheny, Dublin
There's more news than ever before. Everyone is clamouring to tell us who's suing who, who's killing who, and of course who's dating who.
You can even get news flashes sent to your mobile phone.
In the competitive world of information technology, how does the humble newspaper measure up?
What is it up against? Television anchormen have a tendency to stare at the camera and report the day's events like a shopping list. There's no heart, no soul, no opinion.
The Internet is the opposite. Every idiot with a mouse and a modem wants to register their version of events. Looking for news on the Internet is like digging through a scrapyard: you might find gold, but more often you'll get something useless, dirty and potentially dangerous.
Radio suffers from some of television's blandness, but its main problem is the lack of programme listings. For non-regular listeners the only option is to tune in and wait.
As for mobile-phone bulletins, they may be convenient, but with reports limited to 160 characters you don't get much scope.
Newspapers are still on top. They are warm, reliable, insightful and sit on the coffee table patiently until you are ready for them.
Aonghus McEvoy, Belvedere College, Dublin
Recently racism has become a very topical issue in Ireland. As more and more refugees and asylum-seekers arrive in Ireland, racism is becoming a big problem.
Many people think that bigotry and racist attitudes are just emerging in Ireland. But are they?
In my opinion, racism is something that has been part of Irish culture for a very long time. This bigotry has not been against black people or any other people that have come to Ireland from outside; this bigotry is against members of the Travelling community.
For years I have heard biased and racist comments directed at the Travelling community, yet it has never been defined as racism.
Anti-racism campaigners can be seen in every medium, pointing out that we should not have biased attitudes towards people because of outward differences. Most ordinary people can deal with this, but we still have problems with conflicting lifestyles.
I have heard more comments made about Travellers than about black people in Ireland. Before we can expect all Irish citizens to accept people of different races and cultures, we have to accept different ways of life, which we find easy to put down but never see the put-downs as racism.
Media Scope is a weekly media studies page for use in schools.
Write to Media Scope by posting your comments to Newspaper in the Classroom, The Irish Times, 11-16D'Olier Street, Dublin 2, or faxing them to (01) 6792789. Be sure to include your name, address and school, plus phone numbers for home and school. Or you can use the Internet and e-mail us at mediapage@irish-times.ie.
Faxback: Worksheets and other materials are available to teachers who place group orders through their schools. The worksheets are sent to all subscribing schools via the automatic faxback system. This system will re-try an engaged line up to four times.
If you do not receive material by Wednesday morning, and you have a touchtone fax machine, please use it to dial (01) 6709709. Follow the recorded instructions and material will be faxed to your machine. If you have a pulse-dialling machine, refer to your fax manual for details on how to set it for touchtone dialling. If you have problems, telephone (01) 6792022, ext 8568 or 8580.
For group orders, FREEPHONE 1-800-798884.
Media Scope is edited by Harry Browne.
