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Black Friday shopping stories are not news

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

  1. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    I would argue that stories of the lowlifes on Black friday (like the woman who pepper-sprayed other customers to get to an item first) are newsworthy.
     
  2. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

  3. KYSportsWriter

    KYSportsWriter Well-Known Member

    Unless one of the biggest ice storms hits your state and knocks power out to thousands upon thousands of people for more than a week, as was the case here two winters ago.
     
  4. murphyc

    murphyc Well-Known Member

    No one will confuse the typical Black Friday story with great journalism. It's fluff, journalism lite, whatever term you want to use. But if you say not to run such a story simply because it's fluff, the same standard should be applied to all stories. How many fewer stories would there be in the typical paper if that was the case?
    Personally, I would like to see deeper Black Friday stories, i.e. talking with workers as they set up displays early Thanksgiving Day or finding local experts to explain why so many are willing to get up early/stay up late to fight the crowds.
     
  5. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    The irony in all of this is fewer and fewer people are reading these "indispensable" Black Friday stories every year.
     
  6. trifectarich

    trifectarich Well-Known Member

    Because there's no legitimate reason why people need to stand in line for hours on a holiday to save a couple of bucks on a new TV. The author made the point that it was one thing when Black Friday began Friday at 6 a.m., but now it's gotten out of hand by moving to 4 a.m., then midnight, now late Thanksgiving night.
     
  7. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    That's not a logical point. You're just forcing Black Friday to become Black Wednesday. You're right, there's no reason people should do it. But they do. And it's not bad for the world or the economy or anything like that. If anything, it helps the economy. Without Black Friday, many stores would have to lay off employees.
     
  8. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    Black Friday doesn't help the economy. It just means more spending is done on that day rather than spread out for the next few weeks.
     
  9. clutchcargo

    clutchcargo Active Member

    Saying no to run Black Friday stories is yet another symptom of reporters who just don't get it when it comes to readership.

    Let me say it once again: papers need to dish to readers what readers want and/or expect to read, not what the editors or reporters themselves would want to read. It's a corollary of the old rule about writing a column about pressbox food or pressbox etiquette---no one cares except columnists/reporters themselves.
     
  10. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    I'm curious whether anyone here (besides me) happened to go out to a major retail store between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. Thursday night/Friday morning?

    Because if you did, you would have seen potential stories -- good, solid, serious stories -- virtually everywhere you looked.

    Out of sheer curiosity, I went to the store in which I work (I'd worked earlier in the day/night and wasn't scheduled for the really mad-rush initial time period) because, in the past, when I have shopped on Black Friday, it has been during the more-normal late-morning/daytime hours.

    Well, I walked in and could only look around in shock. I remember thinking, "Wow...wow."

    Sure, there was the basic crush and rush of humanity, but, frankly, that vastly understates things. I've worked plenty of typically "really busy" weekend days in my store. What I saw Thursday night was 10 times worse, and, as my reporter's mind kicked into gear, quite interesting, and definitely, news.

    That goes even if you only think of it in terms of just your area store, and doesn't even have to go into whatever straight economic impact could be discussed.
     
  11. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    This is a bigger issue than Black Friday, but why do newspapers have to placate the dwindling existing readership when they desperately need new readers who need something more than a fill-in-the-blanks story?

    Online projects aren't any better. One paper I know ran a 13-second video of Black Friday lines. A whole 13-seconds of crappy video. That paper is really serving its readers with that crap and I'm betting the editors are loving the "digital" effort.
     
  12. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    Because there has to be a balance between giving readers what they expect and what we think they should want. Media outlets of all kinds need to do both.
     
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