CSI Effect: Idealization of Professions on TV Shows

Popular TV shows like CSI and House present idealized versions of professions in the criminal justice and medical spheres. CSI, for example, gives the impression that for every criminal offense the maximum amount of time and money-consuming forensics will be carried out. This has led to something known as "The CSI Effect" in which actual juries are now wanting more evidence. A recent jury consultant, Robert Hirschorn, apparently wanted jurors familiar with CSI who would be able to see holes in the evidence given during a dismemberment trial. A USA Today article reported that 70% of people in a jury pool were familiar with the show, or similar ones like Law and Order. It is reported that the effect has also caused unrealistic notions of the level of accuracy and success in these forensic techniques. Lawyers are preparing more rigorously as a result. Jurors are asking now for DNA tests on things such as cigarettes and bloody jackets. More students are going into the field of forensics and criminal justice. Several states will even allow judges to ask jurors about their TV watching habits. As for House, doctors have reported that patients are apparently self-diagnosing themselves after seeing a certain condition discussed on the show. They are also expecting more tests, and costly, elaborate procedures that physicians say will cause an increase in the cost of healthcare. For both of these shows, one has to wonder what kind of schism there is between the encoding and decoding of these texts that makes people take the fictional events to heart. On both shows money is almost never discussed as a factor in the procedures that are carried out. Other elements in the shows, such as Dr. House's extreme rudeness being tolerated as a necessary element of his overall brilliance, should be indicators that these programs are exaggerations of real life. In CSI the impression is given that all cases will be pursued to the fullest, regardless of other work the investigators may have, and that their personal stake in the case is enough to warrant elaborate tests.