Students filed into Heartland Community College’s auditorium on April 24 to hear from the debaters whose arguments would later be used in many student stories. The debate, on the issue of citizen journalism versus professional journalism, was staged for Radio and TV News categories, and would set the tone for a day built around fast reporting in a single-day statewide competition. 

The Illinois High School Association’s Journalism State Finals brought together students throughout the state for the 20th year of the event. Many schools attended with full teams, while others came with only a few students who qualified from sectionals. The competition included categories in writing, design, photography, and broadcasting, and copyediting, which were all done in person under strict time limits. 

This year’s state finals showed not only how different schools approached journalism, but also how the IHSA event itself has evolved over time. With mock press conferences and staged news, the contest had students demonstrate the same reporting skills used in professional settings. 

Timothy Barnes, who argued for citizen journalism in the mock debate, said the physical setup influenced how students gathered the information. “Because we have the podium to the right and then it’s like the space that we have makes it a lot easier for us to talk to everyone instead of just focusing on an individual,” Barne said. He added that the format of the auditorium allowed students to “talk to pretty much everyone,” rather than approaching sources one at a time.

Barne said that his team spent time outside of school to prepare, up to 5 hours in some cases. “We spaced it out in the time of, like, a week or two weeks,” he said. 

For students in radio news, the challenge came from condensing a large amount of information into something much smaller to submit to the competition. Sophia Valdez, who competed in the radio news category, said the hardest part was “trying to find a good story and trying to find the main points of the story since they give you a lot of information.” She explained that competitors had to identify “the main topics and main points,” while also managing the time constraints. “If you talk too much, you’ll run out of time,” Valdez said. 

Valdez said she tries to balance different viewpoints within her reporting. “I always like to use different voice clips of different, like, right now, debaters,” she said. She explained her focus to stay unbiased while still conveying voice. “You have to be very neutral about it, so you have to do your best to give their main points and not lean on one side,” Valdez said. 

IHSA administrator Matt Troja oversaw the broader structure of the event. He explained that he helps to coordinate the competition and said the journalism finals stemmed from the ideas of journalism professors at Eastern Illinois University. He said the goal was to give students who are involved in school newspapers and yearbooks a shot at participating in an IHSA event. 

This participation has been steady for two decades, ranging from 80 to about 110 schools, depending on scheduling conflicts, Troja said. 

Troja said the most challenging part now is dealing with the technology. Before 2020, most entries were submitted by hand, but in an attempt to adapt after the pandemic, IHSA changed its categories to an online arrangement as well. “The move to digital has made some things easier and it’s made other things a lot more complicated,” Troja said. He noted that entries are sometimes in the wrong format, requiring staff to track down students who may have already left the campus. 

Now, sectionals remain virtual, a decision Troja said is supported by most advisers. Surveys show the agreement among staff of “about 70-30 to stay virtual,” mainly because in person sectionals would require computer labs that many schools don’t have access to. 

The day at Heartland Community College continued with students moving between writing rooms, photography assignments, and broadcast spaces until around 1:00 p.m. The day ended with the announcement of Edwardsville High School’s victory of the 2026 IHSA state journalism finals with a two point lead over Huntley High school.