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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.Gary McFarlane, Firhouse Community College, Tallaght, Co Dublin Not so long ago everybody was ranting and raving; Rupert Murdoch and Manchester United was the topic of debate in every pub and every house. It was to be the biggest tragedy of football history.Even Man United supporters were upset, saying it would destroy the history and the club's great tradition. They were determined not to let this happen to their club.The deal was also to affect other smaller clubs as well as the Liverpools, Newcastles and Chelseas of the Premiership, creating a larger gap then ever before. Rupert Murdoch was the most hated man on the football planet. Eight weeks afterwards, in my opinion, it has been totally forgotten about. The fans are watching a hugely successful team with a financial balance sheet like no other; they can buy any player for any price - the United fans are rather more quiet than they promised.Simon Boland, St Conleth's College, Ballsbridge, DublinTwenty-five years after its first release, The Exorcist is still the perfect shocker movie. The great thing about it is how, unlike other gory horror films, it takes place in a realistic environment. It deals with everyday people and uses the reality of their lives to generate believable horror.It roots into the minds of each main character and literally rips out their inner fears for the audience to gaze at in disbelief.The Exorcist opens with a priest archaeologist digging for something in northern Iraq. What he finds is a piece of sculpture containing pure evil - in no time at all he becomes ill and realises that in the sculpture he has released an unspeakable terror.Some years later, in Washington DC, an ordinary 12-year-old girl becomes the victim of this demon. A real shocker.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@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.