The Rise and Fall of the Miranda Warnings in Popular Culture

While Dickerson's rationale is certainly correct in presuming that those over thirty have already learned about the Miranda warning from decades of television, younger generations only have today's Miranda-less programming on which to form their assumptions about law enforcement. Miranda can still be found on television, but its presence has severely diminished over the years. If this trend continues, how will America's current youth internalize the Miranda warning in the way older generations have? Near-universal awareness of Miranda is an artifact of a shared popular culture in which the repetition of the warnings was pervasive and inescapable.

But how can that level of awareness not dissipate when the portrayal of Miranda in popular culture has become minimal, nearly obsolete? If Miranda continues disappearing from popular culture, how might a future Supreme Court reevaluate the importance of Miranda and the holding of Dickerson? In fifteen or twenty years, would the rationale of Dickerson still make any sense? The Miranda warning--once an integral part of American culture--may disappear as easily as television shows that are cancelled and quickly forgotten.