The Importance Of Popular Culture

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Generally, the very basic definition of law itself is to govern a society to maintain social order and uphold justice. Meaning that, it highlights the importance of social theory in shaping the law. In the article of Links and Choices: Popular Legal Culture, the author critically analysed on Lawrence M. Friedman’s work which is Law, Lawyers and Popular Culture. Friedman emphasised on the importance of popular culture as one of the sources in the study of law. As mentioned earlier, Friedman also stressed on how significant the social theory is in assessing those information derived from the popular culture itself. Thus, in proving the important relation between the law and popular culture, he proposed a three-pronged social theory which explains that law exist both inside and outside the legal system, that law are porous and permeable to exchanged information and that law is a dependent variable which would be observed if other external force in society changes. Firstly, I agree that nowadays, the media, especially television is a useful tool for a layman to understand or to get a brief exposure of the legal system. There are numerous law-related TV shows such as Law & Order, Suits or Bones. Needless to say, these shows give the clear portrayals of courts and judges or legal practitioners at work and they depict how the legal system actually works in the real world in much simpler way. I agree that the legal system has a complex terms and understandings, thus, it is