Abstract
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.
How to Cite
Gies, L., (2016) “Explaining the Absence of the Media in Stories of Law and Legal Consciousness”, Entertainment and Sports Law Journal 2(1), 2. doi: https://doi.org/10.16997/eslj.147
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