Medill first year student wins 2025 Howell Essay Contest
Christian Santana’s winning essay critiques reporting on New Orleans shooting
EVANSTON, ILL. -- Christian Santana (BSJ28) was named the 2025 winner of the Walter S. and Syrena M. Howell Essay Competition at Medill. The annual contest challenges students to discuss “truth gone awry” in the context of news gathering and dissemination. Santana will be awarded $4,000.
Santana’s essay, “Truth Gone Awry: The Speed of Misinformation in the New Orleans Shooting,” discusses how the rush to report breaking news often leads to misinformation, especially in the cases of mass shootings. This can lead to distorted public perceptions and harmful social narratives, perpetuating dangerous stereotypes. In the case of the New Year’s Day shooting in New Orleans, initial reports misidentified the shooter and incorrectly tied the event to narratives about immigration.
“I was inspired to write this essay by my own experience living through a lockdown in high school. Though it turned out to be a false alarm, the fear I felt in those hours was very much real. It’s the kind of fear that makes you think you may not get another chance to walk out safely,” said Santana. “This year, while celebrating New Year’s with my family, I learned about the 2025 New Orleans truck attack. The confusion I felt mirrored that lockdown moment, but this time, I also witnessed the rapid spread of unverified information. Both events illustrated how easily misinformation can be treated as fact, especially in high-stakes situations. As an aspiring journalist, I am eager to be among the first to report breaking news, but I recognize that rushing to be first without verification risks losing my credibility and the trust of my audience. In striving to inform, I must always prioritize the truth, as being first in reporting can sometimes mean being the last to be trusted.”
The contest was judged by a panel of faculty members from the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications.
“Christian’s well-crafted article demonstrates a pattern of the media misinforming the public about the identity of the shooters in the immediate aftermath of mass tragedies,” said one of the judges. “His essay convincingly explains how such mistakes encourage erroneous stereotypes about perpetrators of such crimes and points news organizations to a simple solution: When in doubt leave it out.”
Said another, “The entry highlights some of the most high-profile media missteps in recent memory and examines how failure to report 'truth' had significant, negative consequences for the news-consuming public and for the brand that is ‘legacy news media.’”
“Medill professors urge students to think about the ‘why now,’ to use ‘show, don't tell,’ details, and to, in the words of the late Bob McClory, ‘Look at the blade of grass, not the whole lawn,’” said another judge. “Christian followed all this advice, zooming in on the 2025 New Year's Day shooting in New Orleans. He also flicked at historical parallels, including past shootings in Las Vegas and Sandy Hook. And most important, he concluded that media outlets must prioritize accuracy over speed.”