http://ezinearticles.com/?American-Italians---The-Media-and-the-Mafia&id=1217083
The Sopranos is one of the most popular shows since 2000. It has woken up new wave of associating Italian-Americans with mafia. This show caused a lot of discussions and negative reaction among Italians. For about 70years, 40% of movies depicted Italian-Americans as gangsters, moreover legendary movies like Godfather, Godfellas, Donnie Brasco and The Sopranos are the ones that leave immortal conclusions for the majority of people. Consequently, this majority forms public opinion about minority “damaging their real image”. Existence of Italian mafia cannot be denied, however, according to the data, out of 25mln American-Italians only 25,000 are mafia members. This rate shows existence of the mafia and proves the fact that media do not lie; nevertheless it exaggerates reality, by avoiding some facts. From the very beginning of American history, Italians were the first immigrant that came to U.S, and due to the reason that time already passed and there is already fourth and even fifth generation tends to be absolutely Americanized; that are the reasons why nowadays prejudices about them became more offensive than ever.
