A Night at the Oscars

Last night was Hollywood's biggest night as actors in buttoned-up tuxedos and actresses in flashy evening gowns were surrounded by large statues of the famous faceless gold man. After heavy anticipation following the emergence of this year's biggest pictures, the Academy Awards came and went like a breeze Sunday night.

Here is an evaluation of the night's festivities coming from the websites that I've been following this quarter. This analysis is of Monday morning's coverage, the day after the broadcast of the ceremony.

The San Jose Mercury News has on its homepage the main section dedicated to the awards show. Its current headline reads "Winners, losers from Oscars red carpet" below a bird's eye view picture of a large crowd surrounding actresses who are gathering to take pictures on the red carpet. Below the headline are several links pointing to specific articles and multimedia aspects of the show. For example, to get readers more involved, there is a poll to see how viewers rate Hugh Jackman's hosting of the show. There are albums full of photographs of Hollywood's stars, as well as a complete list of winners. If you click on the main headline, it takes you to that article, which is actually more about the fashion of the red carpet than the winners and losers themselves. However, on the right side, there is a column of related links about the Oscars that cover more aspects of the night, such as "the stuff you didn't see on television" or insiders' news on specific celebrities.

Coverage on the Academy Awards in The New York Times moved down on its homepage, but it's still there hidden under the main headlines and pictures. Clicking on it actually takes you to a whole blog dedicated to awards season, The Carpetbagger, reported by David Carr. Carr writes most of the feature articles on this blog and also points readers in the direction of other Times' articles about the show. There are various slideshows about red carpet fashion, Oscar winners, moments within the ceremony itself, and from Best Picture winner Slumdog Millionaire. There are videos from Carr reporting on the street before the broadcast of the show where he is asking people who or what movie should win. Pictures, audio slideshows, and information about Best Picture nominees also have their own section. Pretty complete coverage, I'd say.

HYPHEN, a blog whose intended audience is the Asian-American population, concentrates primarily on Slumdog Millionaire. One entry, written before the Oscars, talks about how a couple of the film's child actors will be airlifted from their "slums" in India to the Oscars in America. This seems like an honor, but what will happen to them after the awards ceremony? They will appear among the glitz and glamour of Hollywood only to be taken back to their slums the day after. The second entry concerning the Oscars is a recap of the night. It mentions Slumdog Millionaire's success after winning eight awards. It also shows the limited presence of Asian-Americans in the show and the hopes for more Asian-American faces in the future.

Under Jack & Jill Politics, there is only one entry featuring the Oscars. It features the two black actresses nominated in this year's awards show, but it also has loads of Oscar history embedded within it. There is a list of all black nominees in the history of the awards show, as well as videos of acceptance speeches from winners like Hattie McDaniel, who won Best Supporting Actress for Gone With the Wind in 1939, and Jennifer Hudson, Best Supporting Actress for Dreamgirls in 2006.

The main Oscar-related headline in Think Progress, a liberal news blog, is of Dustin Lance Black's win for Best Screenplay for Milk. The entry has an edited version of his acceptance speech, including his lines about LGBT equal rights and marriage, followed by a video of the speech itself. I'm wondering, though, why Think Progress didn't include Sean Penn's acceptance speech as Best Actor. It was as equally compelling as Black's also included a few words about gay marriage and equal rights.

Pajamas Media, a conservative news blog, seemed to have more criticism about the overall feel of the night rather than specific right-wing issues. Yes, there is one particularly angry entry that ends with a paragraph of criticism about Sean Penn's acceptance speech, but the entry's main focus is the anti-American nature of today's Hollywood movies in general. As I mentioned before, the other Oscar entries in this blog revolved around the show itself. One entry is how to liven up the broadcast and another includes an insider's viewpoint from the red carpet.

So out of all the websites I've analyzed, the New York Times definitely has the most compelling coverage of the Oscars. It has the multimedia aspect to it with photos, slideshows, videos, and audio commentary. It has various articles from different people on different subjects, so it's not limited to reporting just the facts but also insiders' perspectives on the event. It's also the most organized with the awards show blog by Carr, so it's easy to navigate around the site.

Beat Blogging and its Influence on Inclusion

Last week, I attended a lecture by Katherine Fong, Deputy Managing Editor of the Mercury News. Sponsored by the Women of Color Network, the question on hand was if innovations such as beat blogging and citizen journalism help improve inclusion.

A few items need to be defined first. "Beat blogging" refers to a new type of digital journalism where journalists covering a specific beat can use social networking to improve their reporting by gaining access to more resources coming from their readers. "Citizen journalism" is a type of collective reporting with user-generated content, open for the public to contribute, collaborate, and publish. It makes useful the comments section, where users can report from their point of view and can submit personal blogs/photos/videos.

In Fong's lecture, she spoke about the work that goes on with the Merc in regards to experimenting with social networking and its focus on getting more readers involved. She said that the mission statement of the paper is to change along with the development of the changing demographic, so it is vital that they get the people's opinions so that they can appeal to a wider audience.

The Merc was included in a beat blogging experiment along with 12 other media companies such as ESPN.com, Wired.com, and MTVNews. Green Tech Beat is the product of Matt Nauman's efforts to get the Merc geared up towards collective reporting. It's goal is to include everyone by letting them submit their own photos, tips, and comments on anything newsworthy about green technology, especially since it's coming from the Silicon Valley. However, one question they had to face in regards to this type of journalism is how to get the uninterested interested in learning about green technology.

It was hard for Nauman and the Merc to really delve deep into their beat blogging experiment because of all the lay-offs in these tough economic times. Most of the young reporters who have grown up around the Internet and technology were laid off, making it harder for the blog to appeal to the younger generation. Also, the layoffs caused Nauman to refocus more on his primary stories within the Business section rather than this side project, so updates weren't as frequent as they could have been. All in all, Fong is proud of their work with the blog, but she knows that it could be so much better.

This is not to say that they are disappointed in their efforts. If the economy was stable and if young reporters were able to keep their jobs, who knows where this blog would be! They do have numerous positives after all. This blog proved that it is much easier for people to get involved with the Merc because of all the different interactions. The Merc is able to gain suggestions and feedback right away from its users, which makes it easier to figure out which sections to improve upon. It also gives them more resources since users can post their own content.

So with this example to learn from, I believe beat blogging does have a shining future with digital journalism. Swapping information is quick and easy, and collaboration is key.