Black Friday Tops News Online

The day following Thanksgiving, referred to as Black Friday, is traditionally considered the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. And for the week of November 28-December 2, Black Friday triggered a discussion about commercial excess that helped make it the No. 2 subject on blogs, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Most of the focus was on a single incident at a Wal-Mart in Southern California. One woman was so intent on getting an Xbox video game console on sale that she pepper sprayed up to 20 fellow shoppers. During the chaos, the suspect escaped arrest only to turn herself in several days later. Authorities, unsure if she actually walked away with one of the Xboxes, said the woman was "competitive shopping." News of the event spread quickly online as some bloggers decried the frenzy that now accompanies Black Friday. A number of bloggers, however, found humor in the craziness surrounding the shopping holiday, and the notion of pepper spraying other customers developed into a common online meme.


Black Friday Tops News Online