Some thoughts from the front lines of teaching —
You may have heard of Channel One News, the daily TV broadcast that is seen in by about 5 million students in upper elementary schools, middle schools and high schools across the country. It appears in many of the schools where I’ve taught on dedicated television sets mounted in classrooms. The programs are downloaded from a satellite during the night, then broadcast sometime during the day. In the high school where I taught this week, Channel One usually follows the morning announcements. The main criticism is the programs contain commercials (someone has to pay the bills), although an ad-free subscription service is now available. (See the daily broadcasts at http://www.channelone.com/; there’s a good description at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_One_News.)
Now, have you every heard of CNN Student News? This similar program can be watched right of the website at http://www.cnn.com/studentnews. It appears to me to be in direct competition and is a favorite of the teacher I’ve been filling in for this week. It’s bookmarked on his computer, and I use it whenever we finish the lesson early and have about 10 minutes to spare.
So if you wonder where today’s students are getting their news, it’s probably from these sources.