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Black Friday shopping stories are not news

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Starman, Nov 24, 2011.

  1. podunk press

    podunk press Active Member

    And lest we not forget, this is a realllllyyyyy slow news day in tiny communities like mine.
     
  2. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    I think Black Friday is a huge deal to many, many people. They do want to know about traffic and stores running odd-ball specials. It's a public service to run those kinds of stories. And it's as much journalism as some random story on a high school athlete who is on two teams and in the math league and president of student council.

    Side note: It's funny how sometimes, in these "Journalism topics only" threads, a wave of momentum seizes the thread from the outset and everyone agrees with the OP, then another wave comes along and everyone agrees with the person who started that. Then eventually it devolves into back-and-forths before someone mentions Hitler.
     
  3. KJIM

    KJIM Well-Known Member

    Hitler did all his shopping on Black Friday.
     
  4. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    If there were any coverage, on the local side of things, about the actual economic effects of Black Friday, you might have a point. But you're not going to get sales numbers from the local Wal-Mart, so all the story will be is some disheveled lunatic who just outpunched somebody for the last Xbox. "It was pandelirium in there," she said.

    It's lazy journalism. It's an event that happens every year. And before someone says, "so is football," that outcome changes. The outcome of Black Friday never does.
     
  5. trifectarich

    trifectarich Well-Known Member

    An op-ed piece in Thursday's NYT had a good suggestion: all the sales that occur between Thanksgiving at 6 p.m. and Friday at 6 a.m., tax those at 6 percent above any and all state and local taxes.
     
  6. Bradley Guire

    Bradley Guire Well-Known Member

    It'll be news if people didn't go out for Black Friday sales.
     
  7. trifectarich

    trifectarich Well-Known Member

    Local TV is reporting one local Walmart had the initial wave of shoppers, but soon after it was a "ghost town" with more employees in the store than customers.
     
  8. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    I guess the other issue is that there is certainly the potential for news to happen at a Black Friday store -- there's a riot or whatever. So maybe it's worth sending someone based on that potential. But the problem nowadays is that you can't afford to send someone to something and NOT come back with a story. Reporting resources are just too scarce for that. So if nothing interesting happens, you have to report that, just so there's something in the paper.

    That's an issue that goes far beyond Black Friday, of course.
     
  9. britwrit

    britwrit Well-Known Member

    A fresh take on Black Friday would be interesting. A bucket full o' quotes isn't.
     
  10. Why?
     
  11. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Which makes it the place to avoid, for those who prefer to distance themselves from the herd.
     
  12. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    New York Times article today on some hotshot computer scientist who says he has statistically proven today is NOT the day where prices are lowest before Christmas, and that shoppers should wait until first week of December. There was a Black Friday story I read. Even the dullest stories have some angle to find.
    I think readers, viewers, etc. would be unhappy without their non-news evergreens. They WANT to see a picture of the mayor serving turkey to the homeless, etc. It's just part of their holiday rituals, and like all rituals, is cherished without really understanding why.
     
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