Channel One has been broadcast in America's schools for at least a decade. If you're unfamiliar with the concept, Channel One is a daily news broadcast created with a teen audience in mind. Every night it is broadcast by satellite to secondary schools throughout the nation. Schools can then show the program at any time during the day. The show is about twelve minutes long, so it's usually shown during homeroom or during an extended class period.

So what convinced schools to show Channel One? Of course the chance to have their students become better educated in current events was a lure. But let's be honest, a newspaper subscription could do the same thing. What really got schools interested was that whenever a school first signs up to show Channel One to its students, the company gives them a television for every classroom and the technology to broadcast a single program to all those classrooms. Another feature that few people know about is that the same satellite that brings Channel One to the school also brings other educational programming that teachers can tape and use at their leisure.

Despite its educational purpose, Channel One has always been controversial because it includes two minutes of commercials in each show. Opponents claim that such advertising has no place in school, especially since the students are a captive audience. They feel that schools have sold their souls for some expensive electronic equipment. While I can understand their concern, I feel that students receive many more commercial messages from media in their everyday life than they see during that small break in the show.

For the most part, Channel One is a quality news broadcast expertly designed for the youth demographic. They try to see the issues of the day from a student perspective and include comments from teens whenever possible. They use popular songs in their soundtrack and eye-catching graphics. The hosts are young yet knowledgeable. In fact, a few have even gone on to successful careers in other news venues. Anderson Cooper began his news career with Channel One, as did Lisa Ling and Tabitha Soren. They were later seen on more widely broadcast programs like ABC News, The View and MTV News.

While Channel One provides the highlights of the day's news, they also produce special reports on issues of importance to students like teen drinking or date rape. These give students a chance to learn about topics that aren't always discussed in school and may lead to more candid discussions with teachers in later classes.

Channel One has also done a good job of introducing interactivity into its show. Students are regularly encouraged to log on to ChannelOne.com to answer a Question of the Day or to find out more about a particular news story. The show has also realized that many high school students have cell phones, so they'll ask students to leave text or voicemail messages in response to stories. It's all designed to get students to take a more personal interest in the news.