Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Downers Grove South High School Entry Title: Breaking Barriers: Young Women in Stem Entry Credit: Joy Haddleton Judge Comment: Strong open, well written. Above-average delivery. Solid reporting. Good cuts. Volume is low; work on post-production audio.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: Downers Grove South High School Entry Title: Romantics Entry Credit: Juliana Conyer Judge Comment: Good delivery. More commentary than journalism. “Genre” mispronounced in places. Choppy audio editing.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: New Trier High School Entry Title: Football Recap: NT loses to Evanston, falls to 1-5 Entry Credit: Michael Batson Judge Comment: Low energy delivery. (Try listening back to this at 1.5 or 2x; that would be a more natural, more energetic delivery speed.) Good writing. Audio could have been trimmed to eliminate redundancy with script.
Place Name: Honorable Mention Contestant Name: New Trier High School Entry Title: Trevian Sports Spotlight, Ep. 1: Inside look at NT boys basketball preseason Entry Credit: Lauren Sullivan, Lillian Long Judge Comment: More of an interview than reporting/journalism. Awkward reading at the open could’ve been addressed in editing. Show gets off to a slow start with “thank you”s. Work more to make questions short and to the point—and keep the focus on interviewees.
Competition Comment: Solid entries; all candidates show promise as broadcasters/podcasters!
