Legal journalism on the Internet: Influence on the formation of mass legal consciousness

The article analyzes the websites of print media, online legal information portals, and specialized online publications in order to find out how new formats and opportunities of the Internet are used in legal journalism, and how media representation of the legal life of society affects the legal consciousness of site visitors. As the empirical base, the author uses the electronic versions of the newspapers Vedomosti, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, and Kommersant; the legal information portals Zakon.ru and Pravo. ru registered as mass media; and the specialized online publications Legal Report and Court Reporter. The websites of the newspapers duplicate their offline versions, but there is more information in the texts: almost every article contains hyperlinks to other publications on the same topic and is accompanied by a photograph. Other multimedia tools are not used. The legal information portals Zakon.ru and Pravo.ru, which emerged directly on the Internet, use online updating of information, hypertextual and interactive features. Among illustrations, figures are used more often, and about half of the publications are accompanied by infographics. The electronic periodical Legal.Report uses only photographs and hyperlinks as additional multimedia tools, while the online newspaper Court Reporter has no photographs, figures, or infographics. A video is prepared for most publications, but the video is not integrated into the text, it is a separate information product. The results of the sociological study allow a conclusion that the Internet is currently the main source of legal information; however, not all respondents consider this information reliable and understandable. Legal information portals and online publications give people new knowledge in the legal sphere, satisfy their need to know what and how happens in courtrooms, but it is too early to speak about a significant positive impact of new media on the formation of mass legal consciousness according to the results of a pilot survey of the Internet audience. The study shows that the impact of digital technologies on media content and textual forms of legal and judicial journalism in the mass media is still minimal. And, if information about legal phenomena in the online media has a more significant impact on the mass legal consciousness than information in the press, on radio and television, this influence is not due to the creation of unique works using multimedia, but only because the new media are more popular and in demand compared to the traditional media. Active use of the advantages and possibilities of the Internet can help journalists create stories about legal issues that are intelligible and generally comprehensible. Subsequent research will determine whether new media can really be more persuasive in shaping mass legal consciousness through digital technologies.

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