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.
Gordon Hopkins, Colaiste Eoin, Youghal, Co Cork
Horror movies have been the defining genre of the Nineties and beyond. Since the 1996 release Scream, the teen slasher flick has reached new levels of popularity, even inspiring the recent release Scary Movie, a magnificent spoof of the genre.
One thing that troubles me, however, is the classification or rating of these films. They are obviously aimed at, or at least have more appeal to, a teenage audience, but why does the film censor insist on rating almost every one of them 18? I can understand that they contain certain scenes of violence etc, but isn't it true that todays teenagers are more tolerant of this than, let's say, the impressionable youth of 20 years ago? This is blatantly obvious if one were to view a movie such as Friday the 13th, which, in my opinion, is pretty tame by todays standards. We need a fairer rating, to reflect the precocious youth of today. The film censor should loosen the proverbial apron strings.
John Oh, Patrician High School, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan
The RTE Guide: Ireland's largest selling magazine. Quite an achievement for what is essentially a glossy women's weekly complete with horoscopes, the occasional weight-watchers' supplement and sections on gardening, cooking and fashion. Week in, week out, it is filled with features on soap operas and profiles of once-familiar TV presenters now working on daytime television.
Of course the Guide is only trying to appeal to that member of the family most likely to buy it: the housewife. But has RTE forgotten its commitment to public service? Well, it could be argued that the commitment is simply to provide a comprehensive TV listings magazine. All else is supplementary.
A reasonable point maybe, but it involves a somewhat narrow interpretation of the term "public service". Instead, should the Guide not strive to be a universal entertainment magazine - one that concentrates on quality. Not everyone wants to read about what's happening on "the Street" or that denim is "in" this season.
Write to media scope by posting your comments to Newspaper in the Classroom, The Irish Times, 1116 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.
