The Death of Amanda Peterson: Tragedy or Inevitable

On July 5, 2015, Amanda Peterson was found dead in her home from an accidental drug overdose from morphine taken from a friend to manage her hysterectomy pain. Both the Denver Post (https://www.denverpost.com/2015/07/11/amanda-peterson-the-life-and-times-of-a-colorado-teen-star/) and the People (https://people.com/human-interest/amanda-peterson-arrested-four-times/) covered this event, but in very different ways. Readers of the Denver Post would view this event as a tragedy and shocking while readers of the People would view this event as something that was bound to happen based on her past.

To begin, the Denver Post wants the readers to know more about Amanda than just her troubles. This is shown straight from the beginning with the headline and image selection. The headline states, “Amanda Peterson: The life and times of a Colorado teen star”. Nowhere does it state the incidents of her past or what caused her to pass away. The first image shown, the image above, is Amanda starring in “Can’t Buy Me Love” as Cindy Mancini. Only in the second picture, which an arrow is needed to click to find, shows Amanda’s four mugshots. The readers get the idea of an innocent girl before they are shown pictures of what she turned out to be afterward. The lead of the article states, “In recent weeks Amanda Peterson, star of the 1980s teen movie “Can’t Buy Me Love,” was talking about a comeback.” Clearly the Denver Post, wants the readers to see Amanda as someone who was trying to turn their life around. Before the article even states that she was found dead, two of her friends, Ryan Hartsock and Tawnya Bowie, have direct quotes explaining things she wanted to do with her life. James Peterson, Amanda’s father, explains, “Her death was ‘a great shock’. ‘A very sad story,’ typical of young actors destroyed by the star-making machinery of Hollywood”. Only now after most of the sourcing does the article give the details of her four arrests. The Denver Post made sure to cover this event in a way where the readers would see Amanda as a real person and feel heartbroken for the people around her.

On the other hand, the People highlights Amanda’s rough past as if none of the rest matters. The headline states, “The Heartbreaking Downfall of a Hollywood Golden Girl: Amanda Peterson’s Troubled Past Before Her Death at Age 43”. The only image throughout the article is Amanda’s four mugshots. The phrases “heartbreaking downfall” and “troubled past” paired with the image selection are going to give readers a negative view of Amanda before anything else. The article begins with the Weld County Sheriff’s Office reporting, “She was most recently arrested for a DUI and possession of narcotic equipment. Peterson also was arrested for third-degree assault following a fight with another woman in Fort Collins”. It then goes on to explain how she was found dead in her home on July 5. Readers of this article would not be shocked to hear that information. They were given the details of her arrests right from the beginning. Sylvia Peterson, Amanda’s mother, specified “Amanda struggled with drugs when she was younger, but had been clean for a long time”. Readers already have their opinions about what happened to Amanda, so letting her mother speak now isn’t going to change anything. The People wants people to focus on her troubles rather than who she was before or trying to become after.

Overall, the way these two news sources stacked the information lead the readers to have varying perceptions of the same event. The Denver Post article would leave readers feeling heartbroken and shocked because Amanda was taking back control of her life. Readers of the People would leave potentially blaming Amanda for what happened to her. I believe the Denver Post was less biased when covering this event because the People left out the information about how Amanda had been recently turning her life around and only allowed for her family to talk after opinions were made. The People wanted the readers to focus on the bad parts of her life, but the Denver Post made sure to highlight the good parts right from the beginning.