Media has always played a role in the stereotyping of any race of the world. It did not matter to the media how the portrayed people or any race just that they sold tickets and made money. When it comes to Italians media has played a huge role in the stereotyping and how it has changed so much in the last century. In this paper I will discuss how the perspectives of Italians started, how it has changes and what it is today. From my gathering the media from the beginning never portrayed Italians properly. In the beginning, Italians were supposed to be powerless, family-less materiel for nascent empire (Marche, S. 2010). The article mentioned a movie that I have never seen or even heard of and that could be because of my age. The movie "The Skyscrapers of New York," featured the misadventures of a brawling, thieving construction worker named Dago Pete (Marche, S. 2010). So in the beginning the Italians were not to be trusted and only liked to cause trouble.
It was after this when the Italians decided that to be portrayed more properly they had to take control of the image that was put out for the rest of the people to see and this is when the “mafia” movies came about. I was raised watching the mafia movies I still enjoy them. However, I can see how media can make the stereotyping of a culture hard to understand. The mafia movies portrayed the Italian families as very powerful, even above the law, family centered, and very hot-blooded. I believe that the mafia movies not only caused an improper stereotyping of the Italian American, but also cause fear for those who lived amongst the Italian Americans. Although, most of the mafia movies were produced by Italians, I feel as if they did not know what they were doing to their public image with all of the gangsters and murdering in their movies. Now in the media it seems as if there is an Italian outtake on every successful sitcom. Like the example in the article “Cake Boss.” Now you see Italians in every walk of life. They are no longer portrayed as mafia or gangsters and no longer hold family more important than everything else. However, I must say from what I have seen from the Italian shows that they are very out spoken and seem to have a shorter fuse than most others. I believe that the Jersey Shore is an embarrassing example/show to even be aired. I do not know it is where I live and just the cultures are that different but I do know if I acted like most of the people on that show I would embarrass myself and my family. Italians do believe family is just as important like all races but just like other races you see separation, divorce, and split families. I believe that there are some television shows that are now helping to change the stereotyping of Italians but I also feel like there are those shows like Jersey Shore that are not helping anyone in any way.
I do not believe that television now is helping in any way in portraying a race. I do not believe that it is possible to even portray a race. A race is the only thing that a group of people can have in common but who is to say that every person in that race lives the same or even has the same outlook in life. I feel as if every television show should have a disclaimer at the beginning just as the dangerous shows do. However, they could state something like “This is how this family/person lives and expresses their culture but it is no way how every person of the race portrayed lives.” I know if there was a show about Native Americans I would not to be stereotyped by that show. I am Native but I have no ties to the culture, and do not even present or act like many of them.