The CSI Effect Television, Crime, and Governance

by Byers, Michele; Johnson, Val Marie; Anderson, Gail; Bonnycastle, Kevin; Byers, Michele; Derksen, Linda; Dobson, Nichola; Glynn, Basil; Harvey, Liz; Hohenstein, Kurt; Kim, Jeongmee; Kramer, Lawrence; Rajiva, Mythili; Turkel, William; VanLaerhoven, Sherah;

• ISBN13: 9780739124710
• ISBN10: 0739124714
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-08-16
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

CSI has been heralded in many spheres of public discourse as a televisual revolution, its effects on the public unprecedented. The CSI Effect: Television, Crime, and Governance demonstrates that CSI's appeal cannot be disentangled from either its production as a televisual text or the broader discourses and practices that circulate within our social landscape. This interdisciplinary collection bridges the gap between the study of media, particularly popular culture media, and the study of crime. The contributors consider the points of intersection between these very different realms of scholarship and in so doing foster the development of a new set of theoretical languages in which the mediated spectacle of crime and criminalization can be carefully considered. This timely and groundbreaking volume is bound to intrigue both scholars and CSI enthusiasts alike.

Author Biography

Michele Byers is associate professor of sociology and criminology at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Val Marie Johnson is associate professor of sociology and criminology at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Table of Contents

Figures and Tables	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
CSI as Neoliberalism: An Introduction	p. xiii
Producing Justice, Science, and Television Drama
Science Fiction or Social Fact?: An Exploratory Content Analysis of Popular Press Reports on the CSI Effect	p. 3
The Science and Careers of CSI	p. 29
CSI and Law & Order: Dueling Representations of Science and the Law in the Criminal Justice System	p. 61
Generic Difference and Innovation in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	p. 75
Bodies of Evidence
Corpses, Spectacle, Illusion: The Body as Abject and Object in CSI	p. 93
The City of Our Times: Space, Identity, and the Body in CSI: Miami	p. 111
The Crime Scene, the Evidential Fetish, and the Usable Past	p. 133
Late Modern Subjects
Not the Usual Suspects: The Obfuscation of Political Economy and Race in CSI	p. 149
Troping Mr. Johnson: Reading Phallic Mastery and Anxiety on Season One of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	p. 177
Forensic Music: Channeling the Dead on Post-9/11 Television	p. 201
Primary Character List	p. 221
Episode Guide	p. 223
Dataset of Press Sources on CSI and the CSI Effect, 2002-2005	p. 227
Bibliography	p. 235
Index	p. 253
Editors and Contributors	p. 269
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