I chose to compare the wedding announcements of two, well-known papers with large circulation, but in very different areas of the country. My hypothesis in class was that the target audience of a newspaper would be most evident through the wedding announcements it chooses to print.

First I looked at an announcement in The Dallas Morning News. In this paper there was a photo of the bride but not the groom. Monique Lhuillier designed the gown (as I found out from the story). The announcement began with a detailed description of the wedding ceremony, all of the events related to it, and everyone who did anything of note in the wedding. It listed the parents of the bride and groom, as well as a detailed and long wedding party. At the end it mentioned their degrees and jobs as well as where they plan to honeymoon.

Next I looked at an announcement in The New York Times. In this paper there was a photo of both the bride and groom but they were not dressed in their wedding attire; instead the photo appears to be from an engagement photo shoot. The story was about half the size of the one in the Morning News and began with a short, two sentence summary of the event. It then launched into a more detailed description of the bride, a television and film actress, and her parents, both retired from positions at Nabisco and I.B.M. Finally was the groom, who is a sketch comedy writer for a show on Comedy Central and his parents, both also of elite positions.

One notable difference between the two is that the announcement in the Times focused much more on the “who” and what those individuals have done whereas the Morning News focused on the “what” and the extravagance of the ceremony in its entirety. I think in this case my hypothesis is proven to be true, in that I know from a story I did about the Texas Club at ND that many Texans love planning events and throwing huge celebrations, whereas I think from what I have heard about New York, the people who live there are more interested in the who’s who of daily life. I would be interested to see if other papers throughout the country also reveal their target audience through the facts they choose to write about in the wedding announcements.