The Influence Of The CSI Effect In The Media

Historically, film media has been instrumental in associating an image of deviant behavior with marijuana, and it has not been until recently that the media started reporting the true facts of marijuana. In the essay written by Richard Willing entitled, The CSI Effect, Willing explains the “CSI effect” as a reaction in which the audience believes it has become expert in forensic science simply by watching a television series. Willing explains that jurors ask for evidence that is irrelevant to the case, and occasionally, jurors ask for evidence gathered from a technology that does not exist (Willing). Basically, Willing infers viewers fail to differentiate fiction from nonfiction and that viewers will believe what they hear, and/or see, on television. …show more content…
Propaganda is a form of communication aimed towards influencing the attitude of a population toward some cause or position. As early as the 19th century editorials were printed allying marijuana with certain minorities and going as far as linking marijuana use with violent tendencies and sexual deviance (The Union). The anti-marijuana cause continued into the 20th century and in 1936 the film Reefer Madness was born, the first propaganda film regarding marijuana. The effective negative coloring of the public’s discernment, produced by media propaganda, created attitudes that rippled across generations and established anti-marijuana laws, but with newly released and unconstrained documentaries produced by independent media propaganda has become far less