Channel One News is a youth marketing company whose main purpose is to get advertising to a captive audience of impressionable schoolchildren. The company loans a school TV equipment in exchange for the school’s contractual pledge to show students a daily, 12-minute, hyper-commercial, TV program called Channel One News. Students lose one hour a week of schools time, which equates to one lost week of instructional time (32 hours) per year. No educational organization endorses the use of Channel One News.
Channel One has fallen on very hard times. Once they claimed over 8 million students were under contract. Since 1997 they have continued to lose schools and now they claim “nearly five million” students and the true figure is probably lower.
In May 2014, publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt acquired Channel One from ZelnickMedia the makers of the ultra-violent Grand Thief Auto video game series. Houghton Mifflin did not disclose the purchase price.
At the end of 2014 most of Channel One’s full-paying advertisers have abandoned the program.
News channel down the tubes for two high schools By JEFF SCHMUCKER Hernando Today Published: August 6, 2010 A national televised news program geared toward education is being nixed in two area high schools to make room for more instructional time. For the past two decades, students nationwide have spent part of their...
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This sleazy movie gets prominent exposure at the top of Channel One News’ home page. Channel One News is encouraging kids to see the filthy, hard-PG13 movie Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. Once again, freelance writer and Channel One movie “reviewer” Christa Fletcher is talking straight to middle schoolers as if she is their...
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Since 2003 Channel One News has had a net loss of 1/3 of its schools. (They had “over 12,000” in 2003; 8,000 in 2010.) The better secondary schools in the U.S. just don’t have time to show their students targeted commercials. This video clip is from the second commercial break in the...
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From 1998. From Jim Metrock: You read right. Before Obligation made them stop this practice in 1999, the kiddie marketers at Channel One News were reviewing and promoting R-rated movies on their official kids’ website. Channel One’s “disclaimer pertaining to media reviewed on the site (channelone.com)” Many of the movies they reviewed for children...
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From Jim Metrock: This is one continuous clip from Channel One News interrupted only by my comments. It is incredible that public schools are urging schoolchildren to watch MTV.
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From Jim Metrock: Channel One News is controversial for many reasons. One is the fact that the program doesn’t cover much news. The main purpose of the program is to get advertising in front of a captive audience of students. Covering lots of news stories is expensive. So Channel One News doesn’t...
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From Jim Metrock: I don’t believe in astrology. I understand that some people do. Everybody has the right to believe in whatever works for them. However, I do have a problem when Channel One News offers horoscopes to children visiting their official website. Children now can get their daily horoscope on Channel One’s web...
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You can read this abstract or pay a fee to download the entire article, but the important point is the same one made by educational researchers since the creation of Channel One News: a school that has a contract with Channel One crosses a line that should not be crossed. http://aer.sagepub.com/content/45/2/343.abstract Abstract If the...
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From Jim Metrock: Make what you will of this. Most teachers, unfortunately, are not like this one, and don’t have the time to analyze the different biases of Channel One News. http://www.evolutionnews.org/
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Schoolchildren who are forced to watch Channel One News last school year were reminded over and over again that they should watch Fox’s prime time show Glee. The Parents Television Council is one of several organizations that are repulsed by the sexual content of this show. From the PTC website: The few...
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