ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on relationship between media and society, and discusses current trends in media communications and public sphere debate. It considers the further implications of media discourse insofar as it relates to the social, political, economic, and legal arenas. In the sense that the media criticizes legal process perhaps it seeks to undermine the domination of one particular perspective in favour of the spirit of opposition. This tendency supports the author argument for an ethical, critical, mode of legal decision-making. According to Helena Kennedy the emotional output of female defendants is often an important feature of the trial, which can influence not only the opinion of the lay jury and public, but also of the lawyers and judge who are not immune to the demands of social and political pressure. Michel Foucault argues that in order to compensate for the fallibility of the law, modern systems of justice inscribe control and regulation via alternative social mechanisms.
