CSI Miami and Law & Order: Categories & Production

Media: Institution: Course: Date: CSI Miami and Law & Order Since the inception of the media production and broadcasting, there have been quite some developments on that front. The age of television series production has certainly been at the forefront of the developments that have been taking place in this field. There more TV shows and series than one would care to count. Each and even show comes with its own set of themes and objectives, setting, cast and costumes among others. More often than not, people will have some favorite shows that they watch from time to time. The different shows will achieve differently, the elements of race, class and ethnicity when evaluated against the Gray’s watching review, relative to categories representation (Gray, 2004). At the same time, there are different representations and production conventions that are achieved by the different directors. Authenticity of the representation of the various aspects also comes to question as different directors will apply different techniques. At the same time the elements associated with the popular culture representation when evaluated against the race, class and ethnicity aspects will reveal very unique social and cultural dialogue issues. Of interest in this evaluation are the shows CSI Miami and Law & Order. These are both American drama series and they mimic the general practices and process in the fields of law and order finding justice for the victims of various crimes, apprehending the criminals and finding the motives of the various crimes all in different approaches. Categories The two shows bring out some elements of categories representation that are quite unique to the themes that they trying to drive to their audiences. In reference to the components of social class, race and ethnicity, there is a common theme that can be identifies in the two shows ("Race, ethnicity, and policing - From The Square", 2018). Most of the characters in their stories are largely Caucasian and the rest of the races are represented in very few incidences. This connects to the element of how justice system is viewed in the United States. Most of the people in the justice system are Caucasian and only a few are minority. This would explain why aspects such as police brutality are associated with whites intimidating the other minorities such as the blacks in the society. At the same time the show use most of the characters that are in their middle class. Generally this depicts the officers who are working the cases, in the mid of the career development. As such, these will be people in the middle class even economically as they build their professions. Generally, most of the superiors who are few will be at the top of the career, but then they represent a small number. In the case of the victims however most of them are in the higher and lower social classes. Ideally, crime relates to the lower classes attacking the higher classes or the vice versa. This is a common trend that tends to indicate rivalry between the two classes. From an overall point of view, the two shows have some high level of professionalism when it comes to the representation of the roles and the stories. The idea being to represent the al the facets of the life of a detective including romance, caring, drama in reference to work life balance to mimic a real job and life. This is also the case when it comes to the costumes given that, when it comes to the Law & Order which is has its settings in the city of new York, there is a mimic of the cold weather, relative to the warm clothes ("Law & Order (TV Series 1990–2010)", 2018). In the case of the CSI Miami, the opposite is true, where light clothes are used by the cast along with the formal uniforms. The storylines are associated with the basic premises of crimes, investigations and apprehension which is accompanied by justice. This is a twist of what happens in real life with a higher success rate compared to the real life. The storyline and the settings are created in a manner that shows relatable places and subjects for the audience. This is crucial when it comes to the authenticity of the shows. Production The production presentation of the two shows is one that brings out the shifts that the industry has experienced over the years. This is relative to the fact that, most of the common precepts that were used in the past have now been eradicated in this shows. They a true representation of what is taking place in the society but also show the shifts that have taken place in the production realm. In the past, there have been instances where the television shows have been racial in a rather blatant manner (Gray, 2004). For most of the production efforts in the past, most of the shows would entrench the element of discrimination, where the minority for example would be associated with crime or given roles that indicate they are second class citizens. For example, it was common for the shows to feature Latinos women as maids in white homesteads and the African Americans would be the ones involved in the drug wars along with the petty crimes. While some of the scenes still mimic these elements, they are not as blatant as they used to be in the past. For the better part of these scenes, the directors are trying to mimic what is taking in the society, where discrimination is hidden in the simple but effective scenes such as the prison systems being composed of the Latinos and the African Americans ("Law & Order (TV Series 1990–2010)", 2018). This is a common trend in the American justice system has been associated with discrimination especially with reference to the war on drugs campaign that is a discrimination mechanism disguised as solution to a social issue. In the case of the cast, however, the presentation is rather fair with reference to gender balance. The only element about the production representation that comes off as archaic is the use of largely Caucasian casts. This is by large is a representation of the legal system but one that needs to change more and include characters that represent the other minority races. Authenticity In the case of the authenticity representation, there is a rather interesting approach that used by the shows. Either of the shows for example represents the race element as one that is dominated by the Caucasian cast. V...