Channel One

In my first post, I mentioned that my brother once got in trouble at school because he was reading while he was supposed to be watching TV. This was because the schools had signed up for Channel One, and had promised their students' attention for 12 minutes per day (10 minutes of news, 2 minutes of advertising).

A site called Commercial Alert has a good page on the Channel One program, including these reasons why it doesn't belong in schools:

1. Misuses the compulsory attendance laws to force children to watch commercial advertising;
2. Wastes school time;
3. Promotes violent entertainment;
4. Wastes tax dollars spent on schools;
5. Promotes the wrong values to children;
6. May harm children's health;
7. Corrupts the integrity of public education; and,
8. Promotes television instead of reading.

Apparently some kids are being punished for not watching the news clips and the advertisements, moreso than my brother did (he was merely verbally admonished). One of the press releases issued by Commercial Alert read in part:

Child advocates sent a letter today to Ohio Governor Bob Taft asking him not to allow local school systems to punish children who won't watch Primedia's Channel One in the public schools. According to the Toledo Blade, two Ohio children were held in a juvenile detention center on October 6th for refusing to watch Channel One and TV in public school.

That's clearly ridiculous. Would they be sent to a juvenile detention center for refusing to watch an educational video? No, of course not. But in this case, not watching threatens the finances of the school, because Channel One provides audiovisual equipment in return for the captive audiences. Apparently that causes some schools to punish rebellion against Channel One very aggressively.

Over the course of one school year, a week is lost to Channel One, and kids spend a total of a full school day watching advertisements. The products advertised include James Bond and horror movies, candy bars, soda pop, and expensive name-brand clothing.

I suppose that a few parents and teachers feel that the "news" aspect makes it all okay, because news is educational. But I even have a problem with the news, if this is used in elementary or middle school. News reports can be upsetting, for one thing, even traumatizing to sensitive children. On the Channel One website today's top news headline is "At Least 50Bodies Discovered Across Iraq as Violence Escalates." Secondly, I don't believe that you can have perfectly unbiased news reports. I'd rather seek out multiple viewpoints and discuss how they differ, rather than having my child receive one news report which is presented as objective.

Channel One has indeed received some stiff opposition from students, parents, and various advocacy groups. But I think it serves as an example of the way that the captive audience in a school is sold to marketers and advertisers, and that trend is growing. Several examples can be found here, and there was an article on this in The Nation in 1999 which is still relevant.

Well, I'd better go wash the marker off the baby now.