20 JUNE 1998, Page 26

A worthy subject

Sir: Clearly the author of your leader of 13 June agrees with Aristotle's warning against teaching the young and immature sociolo- gy, and indeed suggests that if the informa- tion superhighway had been around in Aristotle's day he would have included media studies in this warning, presumably by dint of its large sociological content.

The Spectator might be interested to know that, as a teacher of media studies at A level, my greatest source of material for keeping my students thoroughly up to date and providing text for critical analysis is The Spectator!

There is a huge misconception, perpetu- ated of course by the media, that media studies at both A level and degree level consist of watching EastEnders and listen- ing to Radio One. In fact the subject LETTERS demands considerable understanding of the British political system, the principles and practices of marketing, established theories of audience reception and an ability to deal with the rhetoric of both image and written word. Any time you would like to give your readers the chance to assess for themselves whether or not media studies is a worthy subject for our schools and colleges, I should be happy to oblige.

Sally Wellings St 13ede's School, The Dicker,

Nr Hailsham, East Sussex