As a high school student, John Merkel was familiar with Channel One, a news broadcast created for students that is shown at many schools.

As an amateur video producer, he didn't think Channel One broadcasts looked that complex to put together.

"Not to say that it ... [looks] easy to do, but it doesn't look very hard, either," he said.

But spending a week as an actual producer for Channel One showed the Mars Area High School senior how much is actually involved.

"There's a lot of work that goes into these stories," Merkel said.

Merkel was one of 18 students picked nationwide for the annual Student-Produced Week at Channel One. He helped put together the entire broadcast week for April 5 to 9 for the network.

Channel One supplies video equipment to schools in exchange for 12 minutes of daily school time to present news and advertisements to students. According to network figures, 8 million students view its broadcasts in 12,000 middle and high schools nationwide.

Merkel said he was a little surprised -- but excited -- that he was one of four students chosen as news producers for the week. Merkel was selected based on a video and essay he submitted to Channel One. Other student roles included executive producer, reporter, Web master and camera operator.

Merkel's assignment was to fly to Boston in late March to film a segment on unemployment among teens. Recent studies have suggested that teens are having a difficult time finding part-time work.

Merkel's team found that many students blame the economy for putting so many adults out of work or in need of extra work that they are more willing than in the past to take on lower-paying jobs traditionally held by teens.

"A lot of the adults had to find second jobs because they weren't getting the hours they wanted" at their regular jobs, Merkel said.

After filming the segment, Merkel flew to Channel One's studios in Los Angeles to help put together the programming week.

"Visually, I kind of knew how to approach it," Merkel said. "The only thing that was fairly new to me was taking charge of the story."

As the overall boss of a news-broadcasting crew, the producer has to put the story together, Merkel said. He must decide on the interviews and filming methods, and then work with the reporters, camera operator and editors to put it all together.

While Merkel said he enjoyed his week as a news producer and isn't ruling it out as a career, he thinks he's most inclined to pursue a career in fiction film production. "I wouldn't necessarily want to say just fictional movies, [but] fiction allows a little bit more creativity," he said.

Mars Area High School student John Merkel, in the school's television studio, traveled to Boston and Los Angeles to produce a story on teen unemployment for Channel One. He was selected to produce a week of broadcasts for the network.