• New York Times, Monday, February 28, 2011 2:52 PM

"It was an Oscar night tricked out as a meeting of Old Hollywood and New, a contest between the heart (King George VI) and the brain (Mark Zuckerberg), and most of all, a melding of old-school network tradition and Internet age connectivity," wrote The New York Times' Alessandra Stanley. Her employer likewise took the hint, becoming the first major newspaper to employ all the tricks of social media, video and mobile to keep viewers interacting with the Times on a second screen while tuned in to the broadcast.

The live updates section on the Times site was a mix of polished commentary and snarky tweets (from David Carr: "Look at that little Gwyneth, She can act, and she can act.")

Meanwhile, the Times' attempt to add video commentary from Carr and movie critic A.O. Scott seemed to fall flat: when we tuned in, they were discussing the junk food they'd brought to munch on.

And while "The Social Network" failed to win best picture, social media seemed to be ruling the night. Some commenters said that following the tweets was more fun than watching the show itself. Co-host James Franco himself reportedly spent much of his time backstage tweeting rather than attending to the business at hand -- proving that the technologically tuned-in generation can be tuned out to what's really important.

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