By Tiffany Edwards , University Relations
Kimberlianne Podlas
The explosion of crime scene investigation shows on television has some in the media worrying: Are programs that depict characters solving crimes with forensic science leading real-life juries to have unreal expectations, to falsely acquit guilty defendants?
Interested in the intersection between law and popular culture, Kimberlianne Podlas, an attorney and assistant professor of media law and ethics at UNCG, decided to look behind the anecdotal evidence and see whether a “CSI Effect” truly exists.
Her research indicates that a “CSI Effect” which hinders the prosecution in fact does not exist. She studied whether “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” viewers, as compared to non-viewers, were more likely to acquit a criminal defendant and to do so on the basis of “CSI”-type factors, such as the DNA, fingerprint and hair analysis commonly depicted on the show. The study evaluated jury deliberation exercises administered to 254 jury-eligible adults.
The data show that the likelihood of and reasoning underlying ‘not guilty’ verdicts is the same for frequent viewers of “CSI” as it is for non-frequent viewers of the program. Simply, frequent viewers of “CSI” are no more influenced by “CSI” factors than are non-frequent viewers. In fact, considering the small minority of “CSI” viewers who considered “CSI” factors in their verdicts, the data suggest that they are not influenced by such factors, or considered the very same factors as non-frequent viewers.
Her findings were summarized in the article “The CSI Effect: Exposing the Media Myth,” which will be published this month in the Fordham Intellectual Property and Media Law Journal. The research has led the Broadcast Education Association to recognize Podlas with its Paper Competition Award (research division). She will present this paper at the BEA national conference in Las Vegas in April.
Podlas joined the Department of Broadcasting and Cinema at UNCG in 2004, after a decade of practicing criminal, and later international, law. She is currently the director of the Carolina Film and Video Festival and teaches courses in media law, sports law and ethics. She received her bachelor’s degree and completed law school at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo. She has written extensively on how media messages affect the legal system, and has an article forthcoming in the Texas Wesleyan Law Review titled “The Tales That Television Tells: Reality Narratives and Public Opinion.”
