Images of Law and Legal Education: Law School websites and the provision of information

Authors

  • Graeme Broadbent Kingston University
  • Pamela Sellman Kingston University

Abstract

As part of a wider study of law school websites, this article examines the nature of the material available on law school websites. Whilst recognising that official law school websites are only one source of information for the various audiences that might have an interest in them, they have a particular quality as the “official” version. Such websites, however, contain a mixture of information and marketing.  The provision of information has recently been a key theme in official thinking, culminating in the requirement that all HE institutions will have to publish “Key Information Sets” (KIS), the object of which is to ensure comparability and accessibility of selected information. We argue that making information available is not of itself sufficient: the information also has to be comprehensible to its audience. Assumptions appear to be made about the capacity of the audience to understand not only what is being said on its face but also its subliminal meaning, something which has implications for equality: material that is not explicit about matters such as academic practices privileges those with knowledge of such practices and discriminates against those who do not.   

Author Biographies

Graeme Broadbent, Kingston University

Kingston Law School

Senior Lecturer

Pamela Sellman, Kingston University

Kingston Law School

Principal Lecturer

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Published

21.02.2013

Issue

Section

Refereed Articles