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Black Friday shopping stories are not news

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

  1. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    Oh, I don't know. There's certainly a lot of crap in these stories. But I just tell the truth when I say it affected life around my neighborhood -- I'm less than a mile from one of the major malls of my area, with a lot of standalone stores right around it -- and then I'll throw the conventional old saw at you: There are no boring stories, only boring reporters.

    :)

    Plus, only slightly more seriously: I think there actually ARE some stories you do simply because they have to be done. I'm trying to imagine getting my paper on Saturday morning and not seeing a word about Black Friday. Doesn't really work.
     
  2. podunk press

    podunk press Active Member

    I stayed up all night covering this ridiculousness, and I'm telling ya: It's just silly that anyone who has ever worked at a newspaper sticks their nose up covering Black Friday.

    If people go, it's a story. People went. Thousands of people went in my tiny community.
     
  3. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    Right. If the paper isn't doing the gimme-type community service stories such as Black Friday, can you imagine what else they're not doing?

    We cover things. That's what we do. When things happen, we cover them. If we can't handle that or we're too indignant to handle that, this generation isn't waiting up for us. The people can cover it themselves. And they will. And they want to. Black Friday videos are still making their way around the internet, and it's officially Cyber Monday.

    There are three types of stories, as it relates to coverage planning: the stories you plan around, the stories you react to and the stories you break. That list is from easiest to hardest. You'd love to break tons of stories, but it's not a realistic goal. You're going to have to do a lot of reacting. But you're also going to have to do a lot of planning. Some people in this industry don't like planned stories, and I get it. They're not often fun to write, whether it's as complex as a 9/11 remembrance or as simple as Black Friday. And they're predictable and often generic. Rare is the writer who can come up with a fresh angle on the Black Friday story.

    But that doesn't make those stories any less vital. If anything, those stories are some of the most vital to our success because we can plan for them. We can do them justice with good staffing and good angles. We can try to think outside the box and provide context and create coverage plans. It's difficult to react to breaking news sometimes and more difficult to break real stories. It shouldn't be nearly as hard to plan good coverage of an event you can anticipate. And while that might not be as fun, it's every bit as vital to our readerships.
     
  4. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Black Wednesday's mom called, and complained that he works just as hard and deserves to be covered too.
     
  5. murphyc

    murphyc Well-Known Member

    Heard a story on the radio this morning it was a record weekend for both foot traffic and sales. I think that was on a national basis. Analysts were attributing the records to the Thursday night sales and thus a new tradition could have been born.
     
  6. BitterYoungMatador2

    BitterYoungMatador2 Well-Known Member

    The tradition of fighting each other for things we don't need that we're buying with money we don't have.
     
  7. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Holiday story bingo:
    Cyber Monday/"Grinch" steals presents/Donations down at local charity/Resolutions
    Last minute shoppers/"War" on Christmas/Kwanza*/Gift returns/Holiday scammers
    Cops on drunk driving patrols/Black Friday (Free space)/Fire wipes out family's Christmas(people respond with outpouring)/Food bank/blood donations/Hannukah/
    Shipping Monday/"Hot" toy supply running short.
    * - whether anyone in the community is actually celebrating or not.
     
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