Over to You

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.

Gillian Lewis, Muckross Park School, Dublin

The world entertainment industry today is run mainly by the five largest media companies. These companies control about 70 per cent of total production, a higher concentration than for any other industry.

Teilifis na Gaeilge was developed three years ago mainly to promote the Irish language, but it has still to take off. How can such a small company survive in a world of mainly English-speaking, American-based entertainment giants?

Many smaller TV stations deal with this by catering for minority tastes. They attempt to find a niche market around which to build their business. This means dealing with an audience that is already sympathetic to the views of the station.

The problem that has faced TnaG, however, is that to succeed in promoting the Irish language, it needs to expand its audience outside its niche market.

It is likely to prove increasingly difficult for TG4, in a multi-channel era, to provide the sort of programmes that will attract that wider audience. It may be necessary for TG4 to concentrate on its present audience and abandon attempts to compete with the main channels for viewers. Using TG4 as a means of promoting the Irish language is a process doomed to failure.

Frank Kennedy, St Conleth's College, Dublin

Recently several high-profile athletes have been under suspicion of drug-taking, in particular sprinters Linford Christie and Merlene Ottey. Every so often, results of drugs tests are released, with someone caught with a banned substance in his or her system. In the following days we hear journalists declare that in a World Championship or Olympic 100-metre final, none of the athletes will be clean.

If this is the case, we must ask: why are athletes taking drugs? The answers are simple: because of the money success can generate and because they can get away with it. The reason there is so much money is because of the press coverage these events receive. So if journalists believe the Olympic final is full of cheats, the answer is simple: boycott it.

Following the recent fight between Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield, one newspaper was so outraged with the dodgy judgment that it declared it would not report on the re-match.

If all the media took this line on sprinting, the IAAF would clean up the sport faster than you could run the 100 metres.

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 `faxback', right) are available.

media scope is edited by Harry Browne.