over to you

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.

Niamh Whelan, Loreto Abbey, Dalkey, Co Dublin

You only need to walk into your local newsagent to see how large the selection of teenage magazines is nowadays. J17, Bliss Sugar are but a few of the magazines aimed at teenage girls. These magazines are usually the main source of information on relationships and sexual matters for teenagers. Magazines can give more information to the reader then a parent or teacher could give. They have pages which give teenagers the chance to put their queries or problems to an expert, who can provide them with the best advice and, if necessary, warn them on the dangers.

A magazine provides the reader with information and advice, confidentially. Often, teenagers feel uncomfortable when seeking advice on relationships or sex from a parent or teacher. Unless parents are prepared to answer all questions on relationships and sex openly and honestly, without feeling uncomfortable in front of their teenage daughter, I think that these magazines are the safest way out.

Conor Winders, St Vincent's CBS, Glasnevin, Dublin

Phil Lynott is probably the most important Irish musician to ever live. With Thin Lizzy he paved the way for Irish bands like U2 to bring Ireland to the forefront of world music. Yet amazingly, the majority of Ireland's youth don't know who Phil Lynott was or even what his profession was. Why? It is probably because manufactured, so-called bands like Boyzone and B*witched are erasing the reputation of a once great musical land - while some of Ireland's most gifted musicians go practically unnoticed by Irish youths. Look no further than the genius of Shane MacGowan, who still has many fans - but what age are these?

Ireland as a musical country is dying, but look outside Ireland and you will notice that the whole world is failing to live up to the standards which it set itself in the 1960s and 1970s. Oasis and almost every other real band this decade have tried to copy and recycle the music of those decades. Their efforts have been in vain. If there is a band worthy to be compared to the Beatles, the Clash or Dire Straits, they have not been noticed.

Maybe the answer is that today's youth have inferior musical taste; but how can a person have good taste in music if everything that is played on the radio is rubbish? However, the 1980s are, if anything, more to blame: like Thin Lizzy paved the way for Irish musicians to gain world recognition, the '80s paved the way for music to become drastically bad.

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.