LAW - 814 The Law and Popular Culture

(2-3 hrs.)

Examines the way in which American law is depicted in American popular culture, specifically in mass marketed narrative film, “entertainment” television, mass journalism, and popular literary fiction. The class will focus on a few questions: (1) Why is the law such a common topic in popular culture? (2) What does the depiction of the law in our popular culture tell us about the law? (3) What does that depiction tell us about the mass culture? (4) What does it tell us about the way that the masses view the law (and how does it affect that view)? (5) What might lawyers do differently given the popular depiction of the law and lawyers? Niles, Phelps Spring