Compare and Contrast Media Methods

With the 82nd Annual Academy Awards ceremony a little more than a week away, March 7, many publications have begun their traditional coverage of preparation going into the event itself, speculation of winners, and other inner workings of the long running event.

The two articles I compared are articles from technology driven website,Digital Trends, and the Los Angeles Times both who decided to cover stories involving technology circumventing the event.

Digital Trends, who has a much more technologically inclined user base, focused their article on celebrating the actual engineers and designers who have been honored for their feats by the Motion Picture Academy. The article itself, "Nerds of Filmmaking Get Much Needed Honors,"paints an environment of the under appreciated nerds getting the celebratory ceremony they deserve for engineering the technical marvels in blockbuster films such as 2009's Avatar. The article features a lone picture, which is not of any of the engineers up for award, but of attractive actress Elizabeth Banks who is hosting the ceremony geared specifically for Hollywood's tech-heads. The article uses humorous quotes from Banks, and other interviewees, to almost paint an us and them type mentality. With the "us" being the technicians behind the movie magic, and "them" being the general public who simply sit back and enjoy the ride.

The Los Angeles Times article, focuses on much more simpler tech leading into the Academy Awards ceremony, and is that of Twitter. The article, titled "The Twitter Effect on Oscar," talks about how tech has affected how people are attending the event, received tickets, organized gatherings, etc. This article also includes a lone picture, but is of that of book author Walter Kirn, a middle-aged white male. It is apparent that the Los Angeles Times article was highlighting low-key, everyday technology, in an effort to dispel the "us" and "them" mentality, by focusing on a tech that everybody was familiar with.