Bloomberg Businessweek reporters honored for series on online hazards for teens

Medill’s John Bartlow Martin Award honors journalism in the public interest

EVANSTON, ILL. -- Olivia Carville and Cecilia D’Anastasio, reporters at Bloomberg Businessweek, are the recipients of the 2025 John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism from Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. They are honored for “Unsafe Online,” a series of investigations published by Bloomberg Businessweek in 2024.

The series of stories highlights the dangers lurking online for teens on various social media platforms. It also discusses new legal strategies victims and their families are trying to employ to bring social media giants to justice.

“The John Bartlow Martin Award goes to writers whose work is in the public interest, exposes social injustice and do so with strong narrative storytelling,” said Medill Professor Patti Wolter, who chairs the award. “These stories are beautifully emblematic of the award. All three pieces are riveting—hard to read due to the subject matter, but are also can’t-put-down urgent.”

 “Over the three years I've been reporting on the dangers of the digital world, I've observed the conversation around online child safety shift from 'could these apps have negative impacts on mental health?' to 'this is a full-blown public health crisis for our children,'” said Carville. “These stories are about more than just the horrors kids face in the online world; they are about the extreme consequences that can occur offline -- in the real world -- and the ongoing fight for corporate accountability.”

D’Anastasio worked on a story in the series focused on Roblox, a popular gaming app for tweens and teens.

"There has been endless hand-wringing over video games' impact on children. We didn't want to rehash bad science or surface-level critiques of games, which we know are one of the primary ways kids form bonds with each other today. What we saw on Roblox warranted deeper scrutiny,” said D’Anastasio. “Roblox implemented a lot of changes after our report. Children under 13 are now banned from social hangout zones and messaging each other outside of games. Parents have more control over and visibility into kids' behavior on the platform. We'll be on the lookout for more ways to impact positive change in gaming and tech generally through investigative reporting."

Second place honors went to Grist for “Misplaced Trust,” a story about millions of acres of land taken from Indigenous nations that provides revenue to state universities, K-12 schools, hospitals, and other beneficiaries through fossil fuel exploration, mining, timber harvesting, and other industries.

Honorable Mentions for the John Bartlow Martin Award

Judges honored three additional stories with honorable mentions:

• Frontier/ProPublica for “Fields of Green”

• Business Insider for “The Gutting of the 8th Amendment”

• The New Republic /Type Investigations for “A Death at Walmart”

About the Blue Ribbon Judges

This year’s Blue Ribbon Judges were:

• Danielle Cadet (BSJ10, MSJ11), Media and Content Strategist

• Hannah Dreier, New York Times reporter; JBM Winner in 2024 and 2019

• Adrienne Gibbs, Editor and Former Director of Content, Medium

• Sophie Novack, reporter; JBM Winner in 2022

About the John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism
Former Medill faculty member John Bartlow Martin advanced the tenets of public interest journalism. His magazine stories about labor racketeering, poor working conditions, racism, crime and abuse of mental patients were marked by careful reporting, incisive writing and a palpable concern for victims. In many cases, these stories, published in major magazines such as Harper’s, The Saturday Evening Post, Life, Look, Collier's and The Atlantic, prompted public policy changes and inspired other journalists to make a difference with their own reporting.

In his 10 years at Medill, Martin helped students become skilled reporters and writers. Medill established the John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism in 1988 to encourage outstanding professional work in this crucial area. The award comes with a cash prize of $3,000.