Donald Shelton: Article Critique



Donald Shelton: Article Critique

Introduction

Crime Fiction has come into the spotlight once more after the release of CSI style programs in late 2000, the mix of reality and fiction has had an impact on the viewers and drawn an ever increasing audience. As interest in these programs progressed academics turned their focus towards the types of effect these programs had on the viewer. Based on previous media focused frenzies the entire legal system was taken into consideration, due to juries being constructed of random members of the public it became crucial to understand how they were impacted by such television serials and whether or not this influence extended to their judgments and expectations of the justice system and the techniques associated with finding and presenting forensic evidence.

Discussion Analysis

Previous studies (Liebert and Sprafkin, 1988) have already found that watching reality based shows impacted the audience and encouraged intrinsic learning techniques, though these were usually behavioural in nature and did not extend beyond the learning of trivial facts found within documentaries and socially acceptable responses found within the more common reality based television shows. The notion that the audience takes something away from a program is not a new one (Black, 1994), but how this influence may affect an individual's dealings with a more serious side of society, such as the justice system was of more interest to Cole (2009)

The CSI effect is a social theory which explains that the decision making power of the people is affected by the television programs they view. Based on the types of programs (in this case, crime fiction) the viewer is inclined to watch they may be creating a bias towards specific predicaments. Though unproven, due to paranoia surrounding the effect media has on members of the jury some legal actors have come ...