More comments from Transition Year students who have won a week's work placement in The Irish Times. To join them, send us a 200-word piece on a media-related topic.
Aidan Lynch, De la Salle College, Churchtown, Dublin
"We know how you feel about it, because we feel the same way," proudly boasts Sky Sports' latest slogan. They obviously didn't research this ad campaign very well.
If they think that the majority of the public "feel" like paying large annual fees to watch football, they are wrong. This ad campaign is, I feel, very hypocritical. On one hand they claim to be in touch with the common, loyal football supporter. But then they charge high prices that many football-loving supporters just can't afford. As a result they are taking the football away from the supporters who love it more than the money-grabbing people at Sky.
Laura Nagle, Presentation Secondary School, Kilkenny
When the television camera, that insidious observer, enters the courtroom it defines the contentious case which will ultimately raise the profile of the law in the eyes of the public. Sensationalism and sentimentality are the order of the day.
The camera's stealthy movements ensure the audience receives numerous reaction shots of those involved in the trial: when the verdict was announced the lens captured Louise Woodward's emotional state, the stunned reaction of her parents and the distress of friends and neighbours in the family's local pub. Defence lawyer Barry Scheck's performance was very camera-friendly, and his flamboyance was nothing more than good PR.
Camera work and behaviour like that are nothing but vehicles to promote sensationalism and evoke sympathy for the defence. Hence, many people have a view of the trial based not on the factual but on the fictitious.
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