News, current affairs, soaps and young people's programmes are all topics for discussion at the National Conference on Media Education.
The National Conference on Media Education is held at Ballyfermot Senior College.
News and current affairs are a very important part of programming on television. But the most popular seems to be soap opera.
John Bee, Media Studies Researcher, describes how television soap operas act as a tool to circulate meaning and values in society.
Also discussed at the conference were young people's programmes and what their producers are trying to achieve. Television producer John Masterson says that their success is not always found in the number of people who watch the programme.
A programme can be successful if a number of people who are in positions of influence learn something about how young people think.
He believes that it is the essence of public service broadcasting to provide a format for people in the community to talk about things that matter to them.
The conference was attended by mainly second level teachers. Jerome Morrissey Principal at the Ballyfermot Senior College, which hosted the event, describes local and international news as the most important communicative daily message and as such it should be part of the classroom.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 22 June 1987. The reporter is Gerry Reynolds.
