How accurate are media portrayals?

Both studying Law and studying with the Open University have been portrayed in fiction, though I'm unaware of any that combine the two or even just any showing anyone distance learning Law at any other institution. But there are portrayals out there and invariably people ask if they bear any relation to reality.

The answer is it depends...

As will soon be discussed here, the Open University's methods of teaching have evolved over the years as technology has advanced. That in turn means many older depictions are based on a different study environment. Although some aspects of studying alone remain the same, others are no longer part of an OU student's experience. By far the most obvious in older depictions are the lectures that used to be broadcast on television, often at antisocial hours.

As for depictions of legal education, the more prominent ones are of American law schools. They are somewhat different from British ones. For starters Law in the US is a graduate degree primarily taken by those intending to work in law, so the student body is on average older and more vocationally focused than the average found in an in-person British law school. And a US law school with its own dedicated facilities is more of its own world than a British law department in a larger university. That's even before we get onto the tropes like having to know to do reading for the very first class or the Socratic Method of teaching (though when composing this post I did have a tutorial where the tutor went through students by name and asked us to take each problem in term). Or the various general tropes about university, in particular the 'College Is "High School, Part 2"' trope outlined at TV Tropes (hardly an academic source but handy for this kind of commentary), though for a US law school it would be Part 3.

But even if the depiction isn't accurate that doesn't prevent a film or TV series or book from being good to watch. And some have become part of student culture, often providing common reference points. From time to time I'll highlight a few here and comment on just how close their depiction is to current realities.

(Image created with Microsoft 365 Copilot.)