What an excellent question. A court trial is a step in our guaranteed right to due process in a criminal case. Each state has a step by step procedure in place to comply with this Constitutional guarantee. It is a trial held to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused with evidence and testimony that has been accepted by the court to present in the case.

A media trial is not an actual trial, it is a term used to describe the tendency of the media to decide the guilt or innocence of an accused based on whatever they decide is evidence, whether it would be acceptable in a court of law or not. A media trial also includes a great deal of opinion on the part of the media participants.