A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Sociology and Anthropology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctorate of Philosophy
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Justification by Faith: The Communication of Risk, Science and Social Control in CSI: Crime Scene Investigator (2000 -2009) By, Deborah D. Landry, MA (Acadia), BA (Saint Mary's University) A thesis submitted to the Department of Sociology and Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy to The Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research Department of Sociology and Anthropology Carleton University Ottawa, Canada May 28, 2010 ©Copyright 2010 (Deborah Landry) Library and Archives Bibliothèque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-70527- Ourfile Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-70527- NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privée, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont été enlevés de thesis. cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. ¦?¦ Canada Abstract: The dissertation takes the immense popularity of television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000-2009) as evidence of what is currently sayable about science and social control. Drawing upon the methodological and theoretical insights of Kenneth Burke's Dramatism, I offer a critical analysis of the show's forensic crime drama narrative to uncover the vocabulary of motives, which contributes to the social construction of a Risk Society. While much of the literature on CSI maintains that the series communicates a simplistic narrative of science and technology as the holy grail of security, this paper argues that the rhetorical process of presenting plausible statements about science and social control is replete with both tension and crisis. It is through the careful resolution of these tensions that a faith in objective science as a guide for the imperfect search for some kind of moral security is justified. More specifically, Christianity emerges as a key theme in resolving the most serious crisis of legitimacy for the broader forensics industry, where the immorality of natural science is ironically put to the task of constituting moral authority. CSI represents a general trend in mass communication; namely it characterizes the dramatization of science (as Faux Science) to justify some ways of contending with social disorder. ? Acknowledgments First, I'd like to thank my committee for supporting a project that I wasn't even sure about all those years ago. Thanks for thinking I had something important to say. I'd also like to give special thanks to my supervisor Neil, who knew just what to say when I needed to hear it and always had a direction to point me in when I felt like I was too far gone to find a way out. To my mentor and friend, Michael Overington: You changed my life when you asked "How is it that someone as bright as you does not take herself seriously as an academic?" You saw me in a world that I didn't even know was an option for someone like me! You never let me take the easy way out; you taught me the power ofperformance and how to survive in uninhabitable environments. You believed in me, and you let me borrow that faith on the days when I was ready to pack it all in. To my daughters, Allysa and Michelle: I decided in 1997 that you deserved a better life and I tried to find it in academia for us. Instead of making your life easier, I moved you countless times as we bumped around from university town to university town. You came to class with me on snow days when the rest of your friends were making snow forts, you lived in less-than-awesome apartments, and spent more time in libraries than I would care to admit. I am most thankful for your gracious patience with me on this journey. You got moxy and I remain in awe at how uniquely awesome you both are in spite of my parenting. ¡i To Lucas and Aine, my younger tots. Thanks for reminding me that weekends are not for worrying about dissertations and that sandbars & seaweed are far more important than whatever the hell I was just reading. To Maggie: thanks for hanging in there old girl! Who's a good girl? Yes you are... To my parents: How many times have you supported me along this path? I've lost count. Your support (fiscal and emotional) made this journey bearable. Thanks for propping me up, for bringing me home when I was feeling disconnected, and loving me up the way you do. To Glen and John: Without your strength in this co-parenting endeavor, I would not have been able to accomplish this. Thank you for being amazing fathers, friends and supporters. I'm really proud of this peace filled family dynamic that we make work so well. Lets continue to watch these babies grow strong and wild. To my friends & colleagues (old and new, near and far): thanks for encouraging me to live a complicated personal life, bring spare guitar picks, look down alleyways and up on rooftops, play hooky from conferences to get lost in a new city, run, groove, and accept free food when offered. *Rock thumbs* to you! Finally, I want to thank the students I have had the pleasure to teach over the past five years, and the grad students I have had the pleasure to work with. You laughed at my iii jokes, you danced in the parks with me, and you never left me hanging for a high five. More importantly, you helped me think through some of these challenging ideas. You make this work I do worth doing. IV Justification by Faith: The Communication of Risk, Science and Social Control Chapter 1: The Drama of Risk, Science and Social Control 1 The cultural relevance of CSI 4 Popular media research: Contemporary critiques 11 Scholarly contributions 13 Outlining the argument 15 Chapter 2: Dramatism and the social ordering of risk 20 Rhetoric and popular culture 22 Kenneth Burke and Dramatism 34 Habermas, Burke and Weber: Making sense of security in insecure times 48 The social construction of risk 50 Risk and media 54 Chapter 3: Autopsy of an effect - A critical engagement with the CSI debates 58 The aesthetics of secure knowing 60 Detecting the CSI Effect 66 Methodological concerns within CSI Effect research 74 The crisis of CSI-saturated jurors and 'logical' solutions 77 Jury rehabilitation 77 Fostering a forensic evolution 79 Stepping out of the Drama of Faux Science 81 ? Chapter 4: The Pentad and the Method of Dramatism - Analyzing Vocabularies of Motives 86 Crime and media methodologies: Analyzing content and effects 89 CSI as a Burkean Representative Anecdote 93 The Pentad 95 Language beyond text; Analysis beyond the page 102 Sampling strategy 104 Chapter 5: Negotiating Risky Promises and Problems of Forensic Science 108 Constructing the scene: Welcome to life (and death) in a Risk Society 11 1 Faux Science: A secure system of limited and flawed techniques 123 The promise of Faux Science: Objective (not moral) closure 136 Chapter 6: Framing Subjectivity in Persuasive Fantasies of Objectivity 140 Agents of knowledge: Resolving the problem of objectivity 141 Ironies of expertise 145 Ironies of witnessing 149 Resolving the dystopia of objectivity 153 Chapter 7: Managing Christianity in the Service of Faux Science 161 Pilgrimage oftruth: Aligning science and Christianity 162 The higher calling of the forensic investigator 167 The Holy Father of objectivity: Gil Grissom 175 Vl Chapter 8: Justification by Faith - The Communication of Science, Social Control and Risk 183 The Social Construction of Risk 187 Framing knowledge 188 Managing a Loss of Faith 190 Scapegoats and Acceptable Risks 191 Finding a way out of the Dramatization of science and social control 197 Appendix: Data Sample 207 References 210 VII 1 Chapter 1: The Drama of Risk, Science and Social Control People use knowledge they obtain from the media to construct a picture of the world, an image of reality on which they base their actions. (Surette, 1998:1) The use of forensic DNA analysis in solving crime is proving to be as revolutionary as the introduction of fingerprint evidence in court more than a century ago. Remarkably, Canadian police have been using forensic DNA evidence for little more than a decade, yet it has emerged as one of the most powerful tools available to law enforcement agencies for the administration of justice.