'Like and Subscribe for More Law Content': Social Media and Legal Perceptions

The law has been a mainstay in popular culture for quite some time. Literature, film, television, mass media, and social media have all
benefitted from the public’s interest in legal themes. Currently, much of the literature concerning law and popular culture either makes
suggestions about the implications of the relationship between the two but does not substantiate them or is primarily aesthetic –
unpacking representations of the law but doing little to address impacts or ramifications. Additionally, social media research is generally
underrepresented in law and popular culture literature, despite its prevalence.
The proposed thesis intends to address these gaps in the literature by studying the impact of social media use on legal perceptions. The
proposed thesis would combine aspects of popular methodologies in this field to produce a mixed-methods study that addresses both the
aesthetics of the relationship between law and social media, as well as the impacts on user audiences.
The proposed research would involve collecting a sample of social media posts and manually observing and analysing their contents and
quality, just as a book or a film would be analysed. Thereafter, data concerning audience engagement would be collected – such as the
number of likes, views, shares, and comments each post has amassed. Finally, the comments would be de-identified and analysed for tone
and sentiment to understand how audiences are reacting to law-related content posted on social media.
It is anticipated that by comparing content to audiences’ reactions to it, this research will illustrate how law-related content influences the
cultivation of legal perceptions. This research will not only fill a gap in the literature but also assist in understanding how laypeople use
social media to engage with the law. And further, what their general attitudes toward, and expectations of the law are.