Mediagazer: How can we explain shootings if we don't report on mental illness? (Andrew Beaujon/Poynter)

5:40 PM ET, December 15, 2012

Top News:

Julie Moos / Poynter:

How The Newtown Bee is covering Sandy Hook Elementary shooting — Newtown Bee Associate Editor Shannon Hicks was at the newspaper's offices about a mile and a quarter from Sandy Hook Elementary when she heard about a possible shooting at the school, said John Voket, also an associate editor at the paper.

Discussion: New Yorker, NY Daily News, @brianstelter and Associated Press

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

How can we explain shootings if we don't report on mental illness? — After a tragedy like Friday's shooting at a Connecticut elementary school, it's easy to find out an individual state's gun laws. It's far harder to assess a state's approach to mental health issues.

Discussion: @sesmithwrites

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

News orgs circulate Facebook profile, photos of unconfirmed shooter — Reporters and producers around the country, frantically searching for information online about the alleged school shooter, Ryan Lanza, found what seemed like a match. Lanza, 24, is believed responsible for the deaths …

Spencer Ackerman / Wired:
Internet Identifies, Threatens Wrong Man as Newtown Shooter

Discussion: GigaOM, Poynter, Fast Company, Talking Points Memo, bigstory.ap.org, New Jersey Online, New York Post, Hartford Courant, Daily Download and Guardian

Rebecca Greenfield / The Atlantic Wire:
Why Are CNN and NBC Interviewing the Students of Sandy Hook Elementary?

Discussion: New Jersey Online, The Huffington Post, @andersoncooper, New York Magazine, Poynter, Kempton, The Wrap, Washington Post, New York Times, @dougdalena, Gawker, Politico, TIME and @bobbymacreports

John Koblin / Deadspin:
In Wake Of School Massacre, ESPN Tells Staff To Stop Tweeting About Sports Until Sunday …

Discussion: The Sherman Report

Erik Maza / WWD:
Fox News' Reporting Blunder

Discussion: Gawker

Tanzina Vega / Media Decoder:

ESPN to Use Twitter to Send Instant Replays of College Football — For the holidays this year, college football fans are getting the gift of portable instant replay. — Starting Saturday, in time for bowl season, Twitter in partnership with ESPN and Ford will provide embedded replays from football games in posts sent via Twitter.

Discussion: CNET, TechCrunch and Adweek

Patrick B. Pexton / Washington Post:

Will washingtonpost.com cost you money? — The Post is closer to charging you for online news than it was only nine months ago, when I last wrote about this subject. But the decision is not final. — Citing unnamed sources, the Wall Street Journal reported Dec. 6 that The Post …

Discussion: @rajunarisetti

Sarah Marshall / Journalism.co.uk:

Google-backed Data Journalism Awards open for entries — The Global Editors Network awards will see eight data journalism projects receive a total of €15,000 — Journalism.co.uk is a media partner of the awards — The Global Editors Network has today announced the launch of next year's Data Journalism Awards.

Discussion: Online Journalism Blog, JIMROMENESKO.COM and Big News Network.com

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

MobileMobileMobile: Yahoo Eyes Hipster Teen-Founded Summly News App — When she's not board-swapping, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has been scouring the landscape for trendy mobile “acqhires” to give the sleepy Silicon Valley Internet giant some sizzle. — And you can't get more hot than Summly …

Discussion: CNET, paidContent, Business Insider and CNET

Jennifer Martinez / Hillicon Valley:

Google: Copyright removal requests spike to 2.5 million per week — Google announced Tuesday that the number of requests it receives each week to remove links to allegedly infringing websites in its search results has grown ten-fold over the past six months.

Discussion: The Verge

Stuart Hughes / BBC:

Unprepared, inexperienced and in a war zone — is a BBC World Affairs producer. Twitter: @stuartdhughes — Sarah Topol talking to fighters in Libya — For young journalists looking to become the next John Simpson or Jeremy Bowen, the first rung on the career ladder used to mean hard graft …

Reuters:

Reuters Cameramen Assaulted By Israeli Soldiers — HEBRON, West Bank, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers punched two Reuters cameramen and forced them to strip in the street, before letting off a tear gas canister in front of them, leaving one of them needing hospital treatment.

Discussion: BBC and The Wrap

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Amazon's 2012 bestseller list shows publishers and indie authors need each other — Amazon released its list of the bestselling books of 2012 on Friday morning. The list is a great summary of one of the key themes in book publishing in 2012: Self-published authors and traditional publishers need each other.

Discussion: Amazon.com, GeekWire and Softpedia News

Lauren Indvik / Mashable!:

Washington Post Moves Social Reader Off Facebook — The Washington Post Company has decided to move its Social Reader app — which displays stories from Washington Post Co. publications and 90 other news organizations, including this one, on Facebook — to a standalone site at socialreader.com, the co...

Discussion: @laureni and currybetdotnet

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

Connecticut Shooting Media Coverage Follows Tragically Familiar Script — Media coverage of the mass shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut was all horribly, depressingly familiar. First came the initial flurries of reports that a shooting had taken place in Connecticut.

Discussion: Poynter, @daweiner and @rossneumann