Analysis of Communication Characteristics of Law Popularization Film and Television Works in the New Era

Li Tuofu, Zhu Minghao
(Beijing Tongda Traffic Safety Technology Development Center, Beijing 100012)

Abstract

Purpose: Law popularization film and television works serve as a bridge connecting legal knowledge with public life, possessing unique artistic charm and broad communicative power. They play an increasingly important and positive role in the construction of rule of law in the new era. This paper aims to analyze the communication characteristics of such works in the new era and explore how to enhance law popularization education effectiveness through innovative content, interactive communication, and artistic expression.

Method: This paper first defines the concept and functions of law popularization film and television works, then analyzes the transformative impact of media convergence trends on communication channels under the new era background, as well as the facilitating role of the socio-cultural environment. Subsequently, it examines the communication characteristics from four dimensions, further validated through case studies of the legal drama In the Name of the People and the micro-film 12 Citizens.

Results: Law popularization film and television works in the new era achieve organic integration of content innovation and educational value through multi-channel convergent communication. By enhancing interactivity and participation, they improve audience engagement and learning motivation. Through artistic audio-visual language, they strengthen emotional appeal and attraction, ultimately achieving extensive coverage and long-term impact.

Conclusion: These works demonstrate unique communication advantages in the new era, holding significant importance for improving public legal literacy and promoting social rule-of-law construction. However, they also face challenges such as content homogenization and audience segmentation, requiring continuous innovation in strategies.

Keywords: law popularization film and television; communication characteristics; media convergence; innovation; interactivity

CLC Number: G220
Document Code: A
Article ID: 1671-0134(2025)02-58-04
DOI: 10.19483/j.cnki.11-4653/n.2025.02.010

Citation Format: Li Tuofu, Zhu Minghao. Analysis of Communication Characteristics of Law Popularization Film and Television Works in the New Era [J]. China Media Technology, 2025, 32(2): 58-61.

With the acceleration of globalization and rapid development of information technology, profound transformations have occurred in social structures, economic forms, and value concepts in the new era, posing new challenges and demands for national rule-of-law construction. Film and television media possess unique advantages including intuitiveness, vividness, broad reach, educational value, guidance, and interactivity. In today's flourishing entertainment culture, film and television works not only provide rich spiritual nourishment but also subtly transmit social values and legal concepts, offering new approaches for rule-of-law construction in the new era. Therefore, in-depth analysis of the communication characteristics of law popularization film and television works holds positive significance for optimizing law popularization strategies and enhancing rule-of-law construction effectiveness.

The primary purpose of creating law popularization film and television works is to vividly present legal knowledge to the public and enhance their legal literacy. These works help the public understand the basic framework and core content of laws, grasp fundamental principles and applicable rules, and better utilize legal instruments to safeguard their rights in daily life. Furthermore, they are dedicated to disseminating the spirit of rule of law—the soul and core of a law-governed society that emphasizes legal authority and justice, advocating law compliance, respect, and protection. By demonstrating the positive role and impact of law in social life, these works promote the rule-of-law spirit and guide the public toward correct legal concepts and value orientations, laying a solid ideological foundation for building a rule-of-law society. Additionally, law popularization film and television works serve an important social function by promoting social harmony and stability, guiding public recognition of law's crucial role in maintaining social order and ensuring fairness and justice.

1. Definition and Functions of Law Popularization Film and Television Works

Law popularization film and television refers to works that take law as their theme or core content, aiming to disseminate legal knowledge, spread rule-of-law concepts, and promote the spirit of rule of law through audio-visual media such as film and television. These works encompass interpretations of legal provisions and systems, demonstrating law's practical application and influence in social life through concrete cases and character stories, thereby guiding the public to establish correct legal concepts and strengthen rule-of-law awareness.

As a high-quality educational medium integrating art and law, film and television can convey socialized and popularized legal issues that resonate widely with the public, rather than remaining confined to expert and official circles. This broad resonance is essential for effective law popularization.

2. Communication Environment for Law Popularization Film and Television in the New Era

2.1 Transformation of Communication Channels Under Media Convergence

With rapid information technology development and profound media environmental changes, media convergence has become an irreversible trend, transforming traditional media patterns and bringing new opportunities and challenges for law popularization film and television dissemination. Under this convergence, these works are no longer confined to single television platforms but achieve cross-platform dissemination. Social media platforms, characterized by rapid dissemination and broad coverage, enable information diffusion within short timeframes. Law popularization film and television can now spread through television, online video platforms, social media, mobile applications, and other channels, breaking traditional geographical and temporal constraints to reach wider audiences with enhanced convenience and flexibility, maximizing communication effectiveness.

Multi-platform convergent communication also generates stronger interactivity. Audiences can comment, like, and share while watching, and communicate with creators and other viewers through social media channels, enhancing their sense of participation and belonging while facilitating legal knowledge dissemination. This interactive dimension fundamentally changes the traditional one-way communication model.

2.2 Influence of Socio-Cultural Environment on Law Popularization Film and Television

The rise and spread of rule-of-law culture represents an important characteristic of the socio-cultural environment in the new era, providing fertile social atmosphere and cultural soil for law popularization film and television creation and dissemination. Driven by rule-of-law culture, these works increasingly emphasize the transmission of legal spirit and promotion of rule-of-law concepts. Through vivid storylines, distinctive characters, and profound legal analysis, they convey law's power and value, guiding audiences toward correct legal concepts and value orientations.

Meanwhile, with rapid socio-economic development and continuous improvement of living standards, audience demand has become diversified and personalized, significantly impacting communication characteristics. First, audiences demand more diverse content, no longer satisfied with simple legal knowledge popularization or case demonstrations, but expecting works with greater depth, breadth, and innovation that can excavate social phenomena, human brilliance, and moral values behind laws, enabling deeper reflection and insights. Second, audiences impose higher requirements on communication forms, expecting novel, vivid, and interactive formats that provide more convenient, efficient, and immersive viewing experiences. Additionally, audiences employ increasingly diversified evaluation criteria, focusing not only on legal professionalism and educational significance but also on artistic quality, entertainment value, and innovation, raising expectations for creative breakthroughs and quality enhancement.

3. Communication Characteristics of Law Popularization Film and Television Works in the New Era

3.1.1 Diversification and Relevance of Subject Matter Selection

Law popularization film and television demonstrates unprecedented diversification in subject matter selection. From traditional legal case reproductions to reviews of modern rule-of-law construction; from legal analysis of social hot topics to excavation of legal wisdom in historical allusions—the variety of subjects enriches content libraries and satisfies different audience groups' interests and cognitive needs. Based on diversification, these works emphasize relevance by closely focusing on social realities and public concerns, selecting legal issues intimately related to people's lives for in-depth analysis and vivid presentation. This approach "activates" and "vitalizes" law with warmth, enhancing works' appeal and infectiousness while improving public acceptance and identification with legal knowledge.

3.1.2 Integration of Legal Knowledge Popularization and Value Guidance

The primary task of law popularization film and television is to disseminate legal knowledge through clear interpretation of legal provisions, vivid case analysis, and accessible explanation of legal principles, transforming complex legal knowledge into easily understandable information. This improves public legal literacy and lays a solid foundation for rule-of-law society construction. Simultaneously, these works emphasize value guidance by demonstrating law's positive role in safeguarding fairness, protecting human rights, and promoting social harmony, thereby guiding the public toward correct legal concepts and value orientations.

In content innovation, law popularization film and television achieves organic integration of legal knowledge popularization and value guidance. They maintain both accuracy and authority of legal knowledge while emphasizing positive values and guidance; they focus on both literal meaning of legal provisions and social significance behind laws. This integration enhances educational effectiveness and social influence, promotes in-depth dissemination of rule-of-law culture, and injects new vitality into sustainable development.

3.2.1 Dynamic Interaction on Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms, with their massive user base, efficient dissemination speed, and powerful interactive functions, provide broad space for law popularization film and television dissemination. First, precise targeting and personalized push: through big data analysis and user profiling, social media platforms can accurately target audiences and deliver personalized content. Second, these platforms provide convenient interactive channels where audiences can express opinions through likes, comments, and shares, enabling creators and promotion teams to collect feedback promptly, understand audience needs, and optimize communication strategies. Third, topic discussions and community building functions further enhance interactivity and participation. By creating relevant topics, organizing online activities, and guiding audience discussions, these platforms stimulate participation enthusiasm, foster positive community atmosphere, and promote legal knowledge dissemination.

3.2.2 Deep Stimulation Through UGC Models

User-Generated Content (UGC) models encourage audience participation in content creation and sharing, making law popularization film and television dissemination more diversified and vivid. On one hand, UGC breaks the boundary between creators and audiences in traditional communication models, enabling audiences to become content creators. Through short videos, graphics, audio, and other forms, audiences can share their understanding and insights of legal knowledge, providing rich materials and perspectives for dissemination. On the other hand, UGC content creation and dissemination exhibit strong multiplier effects. Audiences spontaneously spread content to more people during creation and sharing, creating fission-style dissemination that improves persistence and depth of communication effects.

3.3.1 Narrative Innovation and Emotional Resonance

Law popularization film and television continuously seeks narrative innovation to break free from traditional didactic constraints and enhance story appeal and infectiousness. By employing complex narrative structures such as multi-thread storytelling, flashbacks, and interspersed narration, along with plot elements like suspense, conflict, and twists, these works vividly demonstrate the complexity and diversity of legal cases. This allows audiences to experience law's dignity and fairness through intense plot development. During narrative processes, these works emphasize exploring characters' inner emotional worlds through nuanced performances and profound emotional portrayal, enabling audiences to resonate emotionally with characters. This resonance enhances audience attention and engagement with legal cases, prompting emotional identification and acceptance of legal values to achieve better popularization effects.

3.3.2 Enhanced Audio-Visual Effects and Immersive Experience

With continuous development of film and television technology, law popularization works have reached unprecedented heights in audio-visual presentation. High-definition quality, stereo sound, and special effects create strong visual and auditory impact and appeal. Through carefully designed scene arrangement, color coordination, and camera language, these works create realistic legal environments and atmospheres, making audiences feel as if present at case scenes, experiencing law's dignity and power. Building upon enhanced audio-visual effects, law popularization film and television emphasizes creating immersive experiences. Through VR/AR technologies, audiences can more intuitively understand case details and processes, even participating in simulated trials.

3.4.1 Cross-Regional and Cross-Cultural Communication Capacity

Against the backdrop of accelerated globalization and rapid information technology development, rule-of-law propaganda works can easily break through geographical limitations and spread globally through their unique media advantages. Regardless of location, audiences can access these works via internet, television, and cinema platforms, enhancing understanding of different legal frameworks and cultural characteristics. Moreover, these works demonstrate strong adaptability in cross-cultural communication. Through ingenious story construction, character design, and dialogue, they skillfully incorporate multicultural elements, overcoming cultural differences and enabling resonance among audiences from different cultural backgrounds, thereby enhancing appeal and influence.

3.4.2 Long-Term Impact on Public Legal Awareness

Law popularization film and television presents complex legal knowledge to the public in accessible ways. This continuous knowledge penetration helps improve public legal literacy and cognitive levels, enabling them to consciously abide by laws and regulations in daily life and maintain social order and fairness. More importantly, these works emphasize shaping public legal consciousness by demonstrating law's vital role in solving social problems and safeguarding fairness and justice, guiding audiences toward correct legal concepts and value orientations. This profound shaping of legal consciousness helps enhance public faith in and respect for law, laying a firm ideological foundation for rule-of-law society construction. The long-term effectiveness also manifests in persistent and profound communication impact. Even after broadcast or screening, works' influence continues to ferment, exerting long-lasting effects on public legal awareness and behavior.

4. Analysis of Successful Practices of Law Popularization Film and Television in the New Era

4.1 Narrative Art and Communication Influence of In the Name of the People

In the Name of the People is a highly influential legal drama launched by CCTV. As a television series directly addressing Chinese reality, it presents the ultimate game between belief and power, demonstrates the strong force of justice ethics, and wins psychological identification from audiences of all ages for anti-corruption dramas, spreading positive energy for clean political ecology construction and earning public praise. The drama uses prosecutor Hou Liangping as the central character, weaving a magnificent tapestry of anti-corruption struggle. In the series, law is no longer cold provisions but transforms into contests of wisdom and courage, allowing audiences to experience law's dignity and power through thrilling plots. While showcasing anti-corruption struggles, the drama also delicately portrays the multifaceted nature of humanity. Each character is vivid and three-dimensional—their joys, sorrows, struggles, and choices resonate with audiences. This life-like presentation makes In the Name of the People not only a legal drama but also profound reflection on humanity, morality, and society.

The drama leverages mainstream media platform advantages to ensure broad information coverage. Meanwhile, social media topic marketing flourishes—heated discussions on Weibo, shares in WeChat Moments, and short video clips on Douyin all stimulate public viewing interest and discussion enthusiasm. This online-offline integrated communication approach not only makes the series itself a hot topic but also deeply embeds anti-corruption struggles and rule-of-law spirit in public consciousness.

4.2 Social Hot Topic Engagement and Public Participation in 12 Citizens

The micro-film 12 Citizens uses a fictional yet heart-striking "rich second-generation patricide case" as its stage, cleverly building a mock courtroom where twelve "citizens" from diverse backgrounds and identities become protagonists in this smokeless debate. Though only 106 minutes long, the film contains enormous information volume. Through a near-life narrative approach, it brings seemingly lofty legal issues close to audiences, allowing everyone to find their own reflection. Each character's words and actions resemble casual neighborhood chats, yet every word touches the boundary between law and morality. Their anger, questioning, or sympathy, conveyed with sincere emotional expression, creates empathy, making audiences feel as if they themselves are courtroom participants engaged in a quest for justice and truth.

The film's communication strategy is filled with wisdom and warmth. Instead of adopting a superior attitude, it engages in heart-to-heart dialogue with each audience member through the vast internet space. Precise push on short video platforms and heated discussions on social media continuously expand the film's influence. These online-offline interactive activities enhance audience participation and stimulate their interest in legal knowledge, allowing the seeds of rule of law to take root in more people's hearts.

5. Challenges and Countermeasures for Law Popularization Film and Television Works

5.1 Challenges

Against the new era backdrop of flourishing film and television industries, law popularization works face intense market competition. To stand out among numerous works, they must not only convey legal knowledge but also continuously innovate in narrative techniques, visual effects, and subject matter selection to meet increasingly diverse audience aesthetic demands. However, such innovation is not easy—it requires creators to possess profound legal literacy, keen market insight, and superb artistic creativity, undoubtedly increasing production difficulty. Meanwhile, in the information explosion era, audience attention is fragmented by massive information. Law popularization works must compete with entertainment, news, advertisements, and other content for audience attention. Different audience groups have varying interests and acceptance habits, increasing the difficulty of precise communication.

5.2 Recommendations

Facing intense market competition, law popularization film and television works should prioritize content innovation. They should deeply explore hot topics and typical cases in the legal field, combining era backgrounds and audience needs to create works with both depth and breadth. They should emphasize diversified and artistic narrative techniques, enhancing appeal and infectiousness through vivid plots, distinctive characters, and profound themes. To address audience attention fragmentation, law popularization works should fully utilize advanced technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence to optimize communication strategies. By analyzing audience viewing behaviors and interest preferences, they can achieve precise targeting and personalized recommendation, improving communication efficiency and effectiveness. They should also leverage new media channels such as social media and short video platforms to broaden communication paths and coverage, enhancing interactivity and participation.

To improve communication effectiveness, law popularization works must strengthen audience interaction. By setting up topic discussions, conducting online and offline activities, and inviting expert interpretations, they can guide audiences to actively participate in dissemination and discussion. They should also listen to audience voices and feedback, timely adjusting creative direction and communication strategies. This enhances audience participation and identification, enabling them to learn legal knowledge while experiencing law's charm and power. Law popularization film and television works represent a new form of rule-of-law propaganda with unique communication advantages and serve as a force for promoting rule-of-law society construction. Facing increasingly complex media environments and rising social demands, law popularization works require continuous innovation and improvement. Through approaches that better reflect people's lives, address social hot topics, and enhance interactive experiences, they can improve targeted effectiveness and promote sustainable, healthy development of law popularization film and television.

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Author Biographies

Li Tuofu (1988—), male, from Xinglong, Hebei, master's degree, Level-3 Director (Editor-Director), research direction: film and television; Zhu Minghao (1996—), male, Han ethnicity, from Beijing, bachelor's degree, Level-4 Editor, research direction: film and television.

(Editor: Li Jing)