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.
Eoghan O Briain, St Mary's College, Rathmines, Dublin
Did Stephen Roche take drugs? If you read the Sunday Times a few weeks ago you would have assumed that Stephen Roche had been found guilty. In fact he has never even been charged with any offence in this matter. This recent article is typical of the aggressive media treatment towards prominent individuals.
People attacked in this way are in an impossible position. If they ignore the accusations it is seen to be a sign of guilt, while if they defend themselves, it results in further media attention.
An individual subject to media accusations may seek an apology, but even this may not rectify the damage, as the apology will doubtless be less prominent than the original accusation.
If they do not receive a retraction the only avenue open to them is the high-risk strategy of taking on a libel case, with all the attendant costs and attention. Albert Reynolds found that even winning a libel case can be a costly and humiliating experience.
The media expects extremely high standards of other people. Perhaps these same standards should be applied to themselves.
Kate Field, Loreto College, St Stephen's Green, Dublin
A set of pearly white straight teeth glares up at me from the glossy page of a popular teenage magazine.
In annoyance I flick to the next page and I am greeted by another pair of straight pearlies.
The teenage magazine bases itself on the pretext that it uses real-life models, picked off the street to represent the average teenager. Somehow I find it hard to believe that in the whole magazine I do not come across one brace-wearing teenager.
Up until last year I had a mouth full of metal, and half of my class still does, but now it is perfectly acceptable to be a "brace face". Braces have become the latest fashion accessory.
Magazines and television had a lot to do with the numerous horror stories about braces when teenagers first began to wear them. Lisa Simpson felt her life was doomed when the metal was put in her mouth.
Now that they are part of so many teenagers' lives, magazines and television have a role in portraying them as normal, and should encourage their acceptability rather than trying to hide them.
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 e-mail 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 `fax-back', right) are available: Free-phone 1800-798884.
media scope is edited by Harry Browne.
