Peyton Manning Summary

The focus and attention directed towards Peyton Manning within this news story as described above, accurately displays the recurring phenomenon of a conflict between the system and life worlds within modern media. In this case, the system world, comprised of Peyton Manning as a representative of the NFL, has encroached into the life world, represented by the students of the University of Tennessee who are advocating against sexual assault at their university. A refeudalization of the public sphere is present, as the story is designed to communicate one certain message, being the protection of Manning’s image amongst accusations of sexual assault, instead of encouraging discussion surrounding the more important issue of the hostile environment
This article is a prime example of this detrimental movement of journalism, as it not only covers the illicit crime of sexual assault, but also mainly focuses around a widely known celebrity’s personal involvement. Within CNN’s coverage of the sexual assault law suit brought forth by the students of the University of Tennessee, the media outlet participated in the production of soft journalism by highlighting Manning’s involvement within the article’s title even though his involvement played an insignificant role regarding the current issues at the school. The article titled, “Peyton Manning mentioned in title IX lawsuit against University of Tennessee” is an obvious ploy by CNN to hopefully increase the success of the article by initially linking it to a celebrity figure. This trend within news production is explained in From Hard to Soft News Standards, as Plasser (2005) describes within the sphere of journalism, “A shift toward lifestyle, celebrity, entertainment and celebrity crime/scandal in the news and away from government and foreign affairs.” (p. 48) The issue that accompanies this type of journalism is the threat to
Through the investigative analysis of this news story pertaining to the misconduct by the University of Tennessee regarding the school’s treatment of sexual assault cases involving student athletes, and how this story became quickly sensationalized, changing its focus to more predominately illustrate the past allegations at the university involving NFL superstar Peyton Manning, these major problems within the realm of media within the public sphere are made clearly