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 200word piece on a media-related topic.
Jonathan Molloy, St Louis Community School, Kiltimagh, Co Mayo
RTE'S new game show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and the performance of host Gay Byrne have received much attention. Gay's persistent references to alcohol as a means of celebration appals me. Whenever a contestant phones a friend and gets the right answer, Gay suggests a round of drinks is in order.
Alcohol is the most widely abused drug in this country. Given the popularity of this show with younger viewers, I suggest that Mr Byrne thinks twice before he opens his oversized mouth, and then suggests a more appropriate payback for the helpful friend.
Ceri Bevan, Newpark Comprehensive School, Blackrock, Co Dublin
According to the media, if you play enough violent video games you'll be automatically qualified for assassination work. Shortly after Columbine, it was "revealed" that the killers were big fans of Doom. Yeah, them and a million others.
It was implied that this "realistic simulation" gave them the skills to kill - after all, the Marines used it as a training simulation . . . No. The Marines do train with it, but for hand-eye co-ordination, not weapons usage. As for the research showing that people who play violent games are more violent generally - the differences shown are negligible. Very young children can become desensitised to violence through playing violent games, and the industry should not target those games at them. However, the 18 age limit is out of touch; there is no reason to believe these games have any more effect on 15-year-olds than 18-year-olds. Teenagers aren't stupid - we can make our own decisions.
Grainne O'Reilly, Dominican College, Wicklow
Geography could never be accused of being exciting. Or so I thought until I saw a Horizon documentary, a fascinating programme about a mega-tsunami. If the recent floods and bad weather have you worried, then head for the hills - or should I say Mount Everest.
The tsunami phenomenon is not new, but nothing on the scale of the projected one has ever been recorded. The programme suggested it could happen in the Canary Islands: a landslide there would cause a tidal wave so powerful it would become 1km high by the time it reached and engulfed the east coast of North America - not one single skyscraper in Manhattan would escape.
But before you rush out to buy timber for the ark: the researchers couldn't say when this might happen, and offered a timescale of anything from tomorrow to the end of the world.
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