
Explaining the Absence of the Media in Stories of Law and Legal Consciousness
Author(s) -
Lieve Gies
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
entertainment and sports law journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1748-944X
DOI - 10.16997/eslj.147
Subject(s) - perception , mass media , philosophy of law , legal consciousness , consciousness , law , sociology , social psychology , psychology , political science , comparative law , neuroscience
The role of the mass media as a resource for making sense of law has seldom been directly examined. Instead, it is simply assumed that the media have a strong impact on people’s perceptions of the law. However, I argue that the media may be unimportant to groups and individuals whose first-hand legal experiences are predominantly negative and confrontational. This is the most important finding to arise from the small case study I discuss in this article. In the lives of the individuals I interviewed, law tends to be strongly present, resulting in the perception that it is predominantly a burden. As a result, media representations of law are often overshadowed by personal experience, which helps to explain why research participants made very few explicit references to the media.