Framing ethnicity in the mass media

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Ethnicity is one of the most controversial phenomena in the mass media. It is highlighted in most cases owing to the fact that it has a direct effect on people’s lives. This issue is portrayed in a number of reality shows, one of them is Jersey shore. This is a reality show revolving around the lives of eight roommates who are having a summer holiday in New Jersey, that is, along the Jersey shore.

The characters in this show come from different backgrounds, but most of them have Italian blood. Cortese for example, is an Italian American, Poliizzi or “Snooki” is Chilean though brought up by an Italian family while Ortiz-Magro is Puerto Rican – American. From this, the issue of ethnicity clearly emerges especially with the way the public responds to this production.

After being released, Jersey shore was received with a mixture of reactions especially from the Italian and Italian -American communities. This owes to the terms that have been used in the media to describe some of the members. A good example of this is the term Guido which is being used to repeatedly describe some of the players in the house.

This word is slang used in the past to refer to the low and middle class Italian Americans who were mostly stereotyped to be violent, and of thuggish character. Using this term in the show according to the public is demeaning to these concerned communities.

The main issue that develops the theme of ethnicity in Jersey shore is the fact that all the players or a majority of them come from the same ethnic community or a combination thereof. Among the players, those who are not purely Italian are half Italian or related to Italians in one way or another.

The public therefore, tends to relate the events in the show with this particular ethnic community; hence, causing a round of disapproval from the members of the community. The use of the terms Guidos and Guidettes to describe the male and female participants respectively makes this worse, since in real life scenarios, these terms are associated with the harsh and crime related lives of the lower class Italians.

In fact, prior to its release, UNICO had sent out a written request for the show to be cancelled alleging that it played a huge role in encouraging ethnic discriminations (Skrentny, 2008). They were arguing that this show would play a big role in encouraging the stereotype that had already been put across indicating Italians and American- Italians were involved in most of the criminal activities.

Such media representations can be considered to be ethnic stereotypes, first because they do not reflect real life. Most of these shows have a certain extent of stereotypical representation in the sense that they do not reflect the events that happen in real life.

The occurrences therein are stage managed, meaning that the characters are not portraying their true personalities. Owing to the power of the media, however, most people tend to believe what they watch on the television; hence creating a great controversy between a reality and a stereotype.

From this therefore, we can deduce that the ideas brought up in this show are more of misunderstood stereotypes. During production, the idea was not to bring out the characteristics of the Italians and Italian- Americans. However due to the extent to which the issue of ethnicity is considered a problem, the public seems to be analyzing the media along ethnic lines (Cornell and Douglas, 1998).

The mass media have been put on question in many other cases for creating such stereotypes for the Italian and Italian- American communities. They assert that the media has a way of sidelining them and portraying the negative side of their community while laying no emphasis on their good side. There are allegations that many other shows and programs have been produced indicating the negative side of people from the Italian origin.

This is however not true, since for example, taking the case of Jersey Shore, there are casts who have nothing to do with the Italian race. These are however overlooked alongside their roles and generalized in the rest of the members. The main idea behind using this perspective to produce the show was to create a theme that would go hand in hand with the terminologies being adopted. According to the producers, there was no intention of creating any kind of ethnic stereotype.

In one way or another, the show was even trying to bring out the fact that Italians have the same kind of lifestyles with the whites; hence annulling the ethnicity stereotypes. Italians and Italian -American activists, however, are not convinced since they think the show was a way of making them appear to be the bad people in the society. This is however not the case and the contrary could be true in that media personalities have been trying to use the power of the media to eliminate the issue of ethnic stereotypes.

Works Cited

Cornell, Stephen E, and Douglas Hartmann. Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a Changing World. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Pine Forge Press, 1998. Print.

Skrentny, John. “Culture and Race/ethnicity: Bolder, Deeper, and Broader.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 619.1 (2008): 59-77. Print. Bottom of Form

Click Here To Order Now!

Framing ethnicity in the mass media

Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?

We have qualified writers to help you.

We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.

You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)