The impact of the Channel One school newscasts on student knowledge of current events and on student attitudes was studied with tenth and eleventh graders in six suburban high schools in the Midwest. Three schools (464 students) received the newscast and the remaining schools (604 subjects) did not. Current events knowledge was assessed with a 20-item multiple choice test. Participants were also given a brief survey about their news interests and media consumption habits. There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of media use habits and interest in topics presented in news media. Students from the Channel One group scored better than the others on the current events test, although the difference was not as great as expected. The format of the program, its relatively small hard news content, and the distractions of the in-school viewing situation may account for the relatively small influence of the programs. In addition, most students preferred stories that dealt with sports and entertainment, so that student interest in hard news was not great to begin with. In general, results are consistent with those from other research. (Contains 30 references.) (SLD)