The News Media’s Grim Playbook on Mass Shootings

As word of the San Bernardino (CA) attack spread on Dec 2, the news media set into motion the reporting of a story that has become all too familiar: Two attackers had killed 14 people and wounded 21 others, just five days after a man had killed three and injured nine in a shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado. What once seemed like a uniquely tragic event was becoming a frequent practice for editors and correspondents, and they are well versed in what to do. "There are people that we go to, sources that we go to, angles that we go to over and over again,” said Rashida Jones, the managing editor of MSNBC. “It’s like we’re almost doing a mental checklist of ‘who do we talk to, what questions to ask, and what’s the care or touch or perspective we need to put on this story.’ You almost mentally build a playbook as you do it over and over again.”

Editors must also now decide, based on a variety of factors, which mass shootings are most newsworthy. On Dec 2, there was a shooting that left three injured and one dead in Savannah (GA) that received scant coverage as news organizations focused on California.