The CSI Effect: Television, Crime, and Governance

by Michele Byers, Val Marie Johnson, Gail Anderson, Kevin Bonnycastle

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739124710
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	08/16/2009
Series:	Critical Studies in Television
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	6.07(w) x 9.05(h) x 0.88(d)

About the Author

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

Part 1 CSI as Neoliberalism: An Introduction Part 2 TheCSI Effect: Producing Justice, Science, and Television Drama Chapter 3 Chapter 1: TheCSI Effect: "Science" Fiction? Chapter 4 Chapter 2: The Science and Careers ofCSI Chapter 5 Chapter 3: CSI andLaw and Order: Dueling Representations of Science and the Law in the Criminal Justice System Chapter 6 Chapter 4: Generic Difference and Hybridisation in CSI Part 7 Bodies of Evidence Chapter 8 Chapter 5: The Body as Abject and Object in CSI Chapter 9 Chapter 6: The City of Our Times: Space, Identity and the Body in CSI: Miami Chapter 10 Chapter 7: Crime Scene Investigation as Applied Environmental History Part 11 Late Modern Subjects Chapter 12 Chapter 8: Not the Usual Suspects: The Obfuscation of Political Economy and Race in CSI Chapter 13 Chapter 9: Troping Mr. Johnson: Reading Phallic Mastery and Anxiety on Season One of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Chapter 14 Chapter 10: Forensic Music: Channeling the Dead on Post-9/11 TV

Editorial Reviews

The CSI Effect: Television, Crime, and Governance will make a significant contribution to our understanding of CSI as well as the contemporary social conditions that make its effects possible.--Jack Z. Bratich, Rutgers, The State University Of New Jersey

What the 'CSI shot'--the CBS drama's signature microphotographic probe beneath the skin and into the body--did for television forensics, Michele Byers' and Val Marie Johnson's excellent collection does for television studies. This multi-voiced subcutaneous investigation into the world's most popular small screen franchise discovers significant and new political, sociological, and aesthetic evidence concerning why Anthony Zuicker's creation remains at the end of the first decade of the 21st Century anything but a corpse.--David Lavery, editor of The Essential Cult Television Reader and founding editor of the journal Critical Studies in Television

From the Publisher

The CSI Effect: Television, Crime, and Governance will make a significant contribution to our understanding of CSI as well as the contemporary social conditions that make its effects possible.

Jack Z. Bratich

What the 'CSI shot'—the CBS drama's signature microphotographic probe beneath the skin and into the body—did for television forensics, Michele Byers' and Val Marie Johnson's excellent collection does for television studies. This multi-voiced subcutaneous investigation into the world's most popular small screen franchise discovers significant and new political, sociological, and aesthetic evidence concerning why Anthony Zuicker's creation remains at the end of the first decade of the 21st Century anything but a corpse.

David Lavery