Mediagazer: Reddit, Boston and the missing student (Alex Hern/New Statesman)

5:00 PM ET, April 19, 2013

Top News:

Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

It Wasn't Sunil Tripathi: The Anatomy of a Misinformation Disaster — How a terrible misidentification of two people with no connection to the Boston bombing spread so far, so fast — In the middle of the last night's nearly unbelievable turn of events, for a few hours …

Discussion: Gawker, The Atlantic Wire, The Huffington Post, Business Insider, NDTV News and Featured stories

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:

On a wild night of news, a remarkable press performance — Last night was one of the wildest nights of news I can ever recall. — With Boston already on edge in the wake of the bombing of the Boston Marathon, the two suspects fingered by the FBI on Thursday set off on a rampage.

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Pete Williams and the threat to CNN — NBC's Pete Williams is currently trending worldwide on Twitter — and not without merit. On a major story that has been defined by inaccurate and conflicting reports and wild speculation, Williams has been calm, dilligent and correct.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Fix, BuzzFeed, Washington Post and TVNewser

Choire Sicha / The Awl:

Is Your Social Media Editor Destroying Your News Organization Today? … Over the last few years, most media companies have taken on social media editors, lots of them young-ish, lots of them “digital natives.” (Some neither, of course!) Many of their jobs are construed as helping newsrooms …

Discussion: TechCrunch

Alex Hern / New Statesman:

Reddit, Boston and the missing student — When crowdsourcing goes wrong. — The FBI's two suspect photos. … On 16 March, Sunil Tripathi, a student at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, went missing, leaving behind a cryptic note. His whereabouts are still unknown …

Discussion: The Lede, Columbia Journalism Review, New Yorker, The Atlantic Wire, TechCrunch, CNET, Guardian, WebProNews, paidContent, The Drum and msnbc.com

Will Oremus / Slate:

Reddit vs. the Media — Two days after the tragedy, Wolf Blitzer of CNN attracts a crowd as he waits to go on air in Copley Square, close to the site of the Boston Marathon bombings, on April 17, 2013. Boston has been inundated with media from around the country and the world.

Discussion: TechCrunch, NY Daily News, @deanstarkman, Yahoo! News, Gawker, Quartz, Wired and Pressing Issues

The Daily Beast:
How the Internet Accused a High School Student of Terrorism

Discussion: Jack Shafer, Lost Remote, BuzzFeed, mediabistro.com, LA Observed, Salon, Forbes, New Yorker, Salon, Digits, The New Yorker Blog, Salon and Folio

Reuters:

Penguin offers to scrap Apple e-book deals to end EU antitrust case — (Reuters) - British media group Pearson's Penguin unit has offered to scrap e-book deals with Apple that imposed price restrictions on Amazon and other retailers, EU antitrust regulators said on Friday.

Discussion: EU Press Room, AllThingsD, TechCrunch, PublishersWeekly.com and AppleInsider

Steven Musil / CNET:

Twitter, BBC America announce video partnership — The pair will offer the first “in-tweet branded video synced to entertainment TV series,” according to a BBC America tweet. — It looks like Twitter is ready to make its rumored foray into the TV business.

Discussion: AdAge, Lost Remote, TechCrunch, VatorNews, AllThingsD and Softpedia News

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The newsonomics of Pulitzers, paywalls, and investing in the newsroom — Noteworthy in the 2013 Pulitzer announcements are the multiple winners. The New York Times won four and the Star Tribune two. Having just wrapped up a session on paywalls at the NAA mediaXchange conference in Orlando …

Stan Schroeder / Mashable:

Fujitsu Develops Technology That Turns Paper Into a Touchscreen — We're quickly getting used to the fact that computer, smartphone and tablet screens are meant to be touched — but what about paper? — Fujitsu has developed a technology that detects objects your finger is touching in the real world …

Discussion: CNET

William Turvill / Press Gazette:

FT avoids compulsory redundancies as 30 journalists leave — The Financial Times has withdrawn the threat compulsory redundancies, according to the National Union of Journalists. — In January the paper announced it was seeking to drop 35 editorial positions - and hire ten new digital journalists …

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

Amazon Studios Releases Pilots Online … LONDON — Amazon Studios has released the first wave of pilots for its original comedy and children's skeins to let Amazon users help pick which will be ordered to series. — The eight adult comedy pilots and six children's pilots went live via Amazon Instant Video …