Luigi, Tony, and The Family – Summary

The author emphasizes Italian-Americans to demonstrate the influential capability of media on this ethnic group since ethnicity had become a subject of popular interest especially in the mass media.

The author starts by illustrating the phases of stereotype that the media have towards the Italian-Americans. Firstly, the Italian, like other ethnic groups, has never appeared in the media as in the stage called “The invisible Man”. Later, in the stage of “The grateful Immigrant”, some Italian characters were shown on TV and radio exposing joyful manners. Next, in the stage of “The Mafia Gangster”, the Italian image has been considered as the archetypal gangster because of television series like “The Untouchables” or movies like “The Godfather”. Another is the stage of “The Jivy Proletarian” which media mostly presents the Italian working-class type.

However, even though there are various Italian stereotypes in the media, the Mafia image stands above the rest. The Italians are considered as gangsters for a long period after the first Italian mobster in “The Untouchables”. But after they have been achieved in various organizations, their stereotypical images have also alternated to be more attracting. Afterward, there is also a film named “Dominic and Eugene” that expresses Italian-Americans in more decent way without relation to any gangsters.

Not only does ethnicity pay important roles in movies and TV, it is also widely used in
advertisements. Italians are always categorized as single-minded creatures who like to eat and usually displayed in negative images in advertising that often mislead the public.

Regarding the media’s behavior, it always emphasizes the stereotypical notions or misconceptions rather than opposing them because people can be easily convinced by these over-generalized concepts. Because the media’s goal is to manipulate, so merchandisers try to encourage the prefabricated images of each other groups.