Santa Monica High School students are producing an online news and opinion program called "The World This Week," the first episode available at www.worldthisweek.org and on YouTube.
The project is a collaboration between Samohi film students and other interested youth, with the goal of reporting on the prior week's news from a teen's perspective, including interviews with students, staff and community members on local and national issues, said Matthew Ware, a co-creator of the online program and a junior at Samohi.
The first broadcast covered the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the embassy attack in Libya and protests throughout the Middle East, the appeal of Proposition 8, and two tax proposals on the November ballot (Propositions 30 and 38).
"Santa Monica High School already has a journalism program, which publishes The Samohi, a newspaper centered on school events, but it is generally limited only to school events," said Ware, who produced the first episode along with junior Alana Feldman. "Many students in the film and newspaper classes wanted to express their opinions on national and world events, but could not do so in The Samohi or through other means."
Ware said he hopes the program can be produced on a bi-weekly basis, but could offer it with more frequency if the student staff grows.
