Yellowknife (Oct 20/03) - Every Friday morning for 10 minutes, Sir John Franklin high school students are glued to classroom televisions.

They are watching SJF News, a program brainstormed, produced and edited by students in the school's media studies class.

"We had the ability to do it, so we went with it," said Arnold Krause, Sir John's media studies teacher.

Students approached him at the beginning of the year with the idea for a news broadcast, and he let them run with it.

The media studies room has broadcast cameras, handi-cams and a new soundboard. Students know how to operate the equipment and are improving by leaps and bounds, Krause said.

The show is produced by about 15 students who meet with Krause over lunch in the SJF newsroom to discuss story ideas and program plans.

The program focuses on issues that affect students and comes with the stress of a live newsroom.

"The kids are getting better at working together," he says.

Krause estimates the students record 90 minutes of video tape a week.

Close editing sends most of the sound and images to the editing room floor.

"Working in a group can be hard.There are times when there's tension," said Morgan Barrett, who switches between anchoring the show and running a camera.

But like many other students in the program, she aspires to a career in journalism or film.

"I love media studies. I hope to pursue it later," Barrett said.

Krause hopes SJF News becomes a fixture at the school, changing as students come and go through his course.