Cultural representation of Italians in the media. Looking at the MTV Essay

ethnic representation of Italians in the media. Looking at the MTV series Jersey Shore - strain ExampleAlternatively, they atomic number 18 mommas boys. They all have names like Pauly and Joey, and eat spaghetti all night. Of course, this is not the case Italians are just as nuanced as anybody else. Some may fit the stereotype, and to the highest degree probably do not. Nonetheless, the heathenish portrayals of Italians have been largely negative, and there is no place where this is more pellucid than the television show Jersey Shore. The show is based upon 10 Italian-Americans living in a hearth on the Jersey Shore in the first season, and Miami Beach in the second season, and centers around the exploits of the Guidos and Guidettes in the house. The girls are high maintenance, crass, vain and drunk. The boys are perpetually tanned, with blow-out hair, muscular, crass, vain and drunk. They all hook up with haphazard people, and say cuss words every other word. They are all apparently low class, and, with the exclusion of one of the boys, uneducated. In short, the show takes every negative stereotype of the Italian American and adds a hardly a(prenominal) more. And, unfortunately for the Italian Americans in society, the show is a huge hit. Basic Concepts Collective Identity, Culture and Cultural Sociology To understand wherefore Jersey Shore is so offensive to Italian-Americans, one must understand the rudiments of culture, identity and ethnic identity. These are all basic concepts that ties in why television shows that feature stereotypes are harmful to targeted groups. The first concept that needs to be understood is that of culture, as television shows, such as Jersey Shore would be considered to be a part of our popular culture. Culture refers to the way that individuals engender sense of their knowledge domain, and a way to individuals to find meaning (Cushman, 1996, p. 7). Events that occur in the individuals world are thus interpreted th rough the culture of the individual, and this is one way that individuals understand the modern world. The cordial world is what provides the basis for an individuals culture, specifically the concrete experiences experienced by this individual. Culture is reflexive, in that people make culture, and culture makes the individual. This is how both individual and collective identities are formed. (Cushman, 1996, p. 7). A persons life is shaped by culture because culture imposes inherent patterns that are formed by communal life, logic and narrative, and discourse and language. In this way, culture forms the self, as the growth of the self is dependent upon external images and genial bonds (Bruner, 1990, p. 42). The internal thoughts, feelings and states of consciousness that an individual has is externalized and shared by concrete representations of culture and are formed into cultural objects, which includes television programs (Cushman, 1996, p. 90). Moreover, culture helps frame t he individuals experiences and acts, because these are realized by the individual when he or she participates in cultures symbolic systems (Bruner, 1990, p. 33). Culture is how individual meaning becomes communal and domain (Bruner, 1990, p. 34). Moreover, there is proof that television series, among other cultural objects, impact the culture because culture is learned, not innate. This was shown by the studies done by Eisenhart (1995). Eisenhart set out to find out what aspects of a given culture influences individuals, and why this would be so (Eisenhart, 1995, p. 4). Eisenhart posited that there would be different ways of transmitting