Davis County Clipper | 1991-02-09 | Page 1 | Channel 1 Comes to Davis Co.

Channel 1 comes to Davis Co. By KRIS JOHNSON Staff Writer FARMINGTON Davis County School District has decided to join the nation's growing Channel One audience by participating par-ticipating in a free television program, pro-gram, made controversial because it includes commercial advertising inside in-side the classroom. Knoxville, Tenn. -based Whittle Communications offers schools free television sets in every classroom, installs a satellite receiving dish and gives away videotape machines if educators agree to carry its 12-minute 12-minute daily news and information program. Included in Channel One programming is two minutes of commercials. The Davis County School Board voted Wednesday to let North Davis Junior High School enter into a one-year pilot program with Whittle. Beginning this fall, the district becomes the fourth in Utah to give Channel One a try. I Despite opposition from school board member Robert Thurgood, the rest of the board voted unanimously in favor of the program. pro-gram. Thurgood' s concern was that school children watch enough television tele-vision as it is. "They don't need to watch more at school," he said. He also expressed concern about using a television as a teaching tool Moreover, Thurgood questioned the ethics of subjecting school children to two minutes of commercials commer-cials every day, while they're in school. Richard E. Kendell, district superintendent, said, "I think the Channel One advertisements are no more harmful than the other parts oi our lives when we are subjected to advertising in TV, radio, magazines, maga-zines, newspapers and billboards, learning how to deal with advertising advertis-ing is part of the educational process. pro-cess. We're not trying to defend the advertising, we're trying to defend the use of news as an introduction to current affairs. ' Another board member added that a lot of school children never watch the news; they have no idea of what is going on in our world today, to-day, she said. J SEE CHANNEL ON A-2 Channel CONTINUED FROM A-l "You've got to weigh the benefits and the costs, and the benefits appear to outweigh the costs," said Kendell. "In most cases, the disadvantage of having children as a captive audience to commercials, outweighs the newsworthiness of the broadcast. "I'm just prepared to say I'll try it in one school This program is worthy of an experimental try," Kendall said. The editorial content of Channel One includes current events and news material of an educational nature that focuses on the interest of teen-agers. The commercial content will be limited to materials Whittle Communications deems suitable for teen-agers and will have standards and guidelines that suit the needs of the educational system. Channel One makes all of its money from advertising, and this is why they are able to provide schools with free equipment, a Utah Education Association spokesperson spokesper-son said. Channel One is not only controversial in Utah, it's controversial con-troversial on a national level. The National Education Association vehemently opposes Channel One, he added. Moreover, the NEA is setting up bills in different states that will outlaw the use of Channel One as an educational tool in public schools because of the advertising and the idea of using a TV as an educational ed-ucational tool, said the UEA spokesperson. Davis County PTA President Barbara Smith said that she has mixed feelings about the Channel One issue. ' There are some technical benefits, and the schools may feel like the trade is worth it to receive the equipment. I hate to see the strong influence that Channel One could have on students as a financial finan-cial gain, yet people could rationalize it and say this is a trade educators should be making," said Smith. "I really am mixed up, I don't think Channel One will hurt the kids. However, my negative feeling is that those kids will be forced to watch two minutes of commercials. I just hope that the teachers will be in service in the best way to use the information, and the best way to deal with the issues that the children are seeing on TV," said Smith. North Davis Junior High School Principal Mike Timothy ensured board members in a previous meeting that Channel One is a Fine educational tool that gives students a unique opportunity to become aware of important global issues, which are presented to them through the eyes of a teen-ager. Timothy added that school faculty facul-ty will preview everything before it's shown to the students and there will be a strong censorship of commercials. com-mercials. t "If we deem the contents of that day's program inappropriate, then we have the choice to not show it," said Timothy. Another argument raised in an earlier meeting is that Channel One takes up too much class time. "Our faculty is very willing to organize their day and class time so that we can show Channel One at a designated time every day we are in class," he said. Walt Bearden, a Whittle representative, rep-resentative, said that despite controversy con-troversy over the program, no school has withdrawn once it was signed up. He said the company has an interest in keeping the quality of news programs high to retain subscribers. "It's time for us as educators to modernize education, to make changes, to renew ourselves, to accept ac-cept that this is a technological era and to use all the tools we have available to make learning a priority for our youth. That means trying bold, new approaches and even controversial con-troversial approaches," said Whittle spokesperson Terrel H. Bell. Channel One is a great educational educa-tional tool because it brings current events into a classroom on a daily basis, providing students with both a window and a mirror on the world a window because it lets students view key global events and issues, a mirror because it reflects the news from a student's perspective, perspec-tive, he added.