ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the social impact of forensic science by focusing on media representations. It begins by tracing the emergence of fictional portrayals of crime, from the work of Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle through to the CSI franchise. The chapter then moves on to a critical discussion of the ‘CSI effect’, namely, the alleged influence of television dramas on public and media understandings of forensic science, before focusing on representations of forensic science in news media. The example of DNABoost is introduced to show how the representation of forensic technology via news media may challenge assumptions about the distinction between forensic ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’. True crime documentaries and podcasts are also discussed. The chapter considers how the ‘CSI effect’ has itself become a news story, further blurring the distinction between representation and reality. The latter example is discussed in the context of the concepts of ‘deficit’ and ‘surfeit’ models which have been introduced via social studies of the public understanding of science.
