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.
Lola O'Sullivan, Holy Child, Killiney, Co DublinRecently I sat down to watch the television news and I was utterly appalled at the order of the headlines: the first described the arrest of Liam Gallagher; the second related to the good performance of the Democratic Party in the mid-term US elections; finally there was a report on the devastating effects of Hurricane Mitch in Central America. I found it hard to believe that the violent and distasteful actions of Gallagher were considered more important than the loss of numerous lives and widespread destruction.
Is the sensationalism in the media reflecting the direction our society is heading? Before we become this superficial society, it is up to us, the public, to disregard and boycott this intrusion of sensationalism.
Ciara Fagan, Loreto College, Crumlin, Dublin
The striking photograph of Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong suspect is agonising to see. It depicts the fear and anguish of the victim - hands tied at his back, eyes closed, face cringed in fear etc. The gun is inches from his head. The executioner is poised to pull the trigger . . .
This explicit photograph speaks a thousand words. It reveals the utter futility of war. War destroys countless lives, it devastates and tortures people. It arouses contempt, anger and bitterness. It ruins people, widens the gaps, strengthens the barriers and heightens hostility between people. In such graphic photographs the shocking reality of war is brought into people's homes in a way no words can do.
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.
