Submission Date

4-28-2025

Document Type

Paper

Department

Media & Communication Studies

Second Department

Theater

Adviser

Sheryl Goodman

Second Adviser

Meghan Brodie

Committee Member

Anna Marks

Department Chair

Sheryl Goodman

Department Chair

Shannon Zura

Project Description

This content analysis paper investigates the portrayal of the legal profession onstage within legal dramas first performed in the twenty-first century. There has been no previous research that has focused on a comprehensive analysis of the specific content of legal dramas, so this study is exploratory in nature. This study emphasizes the importance of learning about the content characteristics of legal plays and legal characters. This content analysis seeks to answer two research questions. First, do playwrights of legal plays first performed between 2000-2024 belong to similar identity demographics, write about similar content, and/or have similar messaging regarding the notion of justice? Second, are there any patterns in how legal characters in legal plays first performed between 2000-2024 are characterized and portrayed? For example, are certain types of characters portrayed more negatively than others? A random sample of 40 legal plays (from a population of 106) were examined across 29 different content categories to determine findings such as: identity characteristics of the playwright (gender and racial demographics; whether due process, a just outcome, or justice overall was present; and whether legal characters engage in any negative behaviors or if they are victims of violence. This study provides a framework for more communication scholars to critically examine elements of theater for the purpose of understanding how characters are portrayed onstage, and how playwrights potentially influence that portrayal.

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