Effects of Courtroom Media on Legal Understanding

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

Courtroom dramas depict the lives of judges, attorneys, jurors, witnesses, and journalists. Dramas portray a stylized version of how the criminal justice and legal system work in the United States (Manchura and Ulbrich 2002). In this study, a quantitative analysis is used to study the effects of courtroom drama exposure on viewers’ legal understanding. Legal understanding is to be defined as the degree to which a person understands the basics of courtroom procedure, the actors within the legal system, and their individual rights. It is the goal of this study to examine if and how courtroom dramas misconstrue people’s understanding of the legal system. A convenience sample method was used to collect surveys (N=100) from students of both Criminal Justice Studies majors/minors and all other majors/minors at a small, liberal arts college in Pennsylvania. Survey data criteria included legal jargon recognition and definition, degree of understanding of key legal processes, extent to which the viewer understands his/her individual rights, and the degree of understanding of legal roles within a courtroom. Study results fill a void in the literature to lead to the development of recommendations for courtroom media programming to instill correct legal understanding in their viewers.

Author

• Emily Niles, Westminster College