WP3

Part 1

Imagine two groups of people. They both commit crimes, they both value the loyalty of their members, and they both operate underground. One of these groups is revered, respected, and romanticized. The other, persecuted. The way the Mafia is treated, you would think they spend their weekends volunteering at a shelter for abandoned puppies. Gangs, however, are thought of as the ones who abandoned them. Mafias are cool, admirable, and highly admired. Their illegal activity practically doesn’t exist to the average observer. Gangs are dangerous, scary, and responsible for countless wrongs in the United States. This is the consensus of the two groups. In the media, this contrast becomes even more apparent.

The so-called “Mafia Craze'' has defined the American cinematic field since the release of The Godfather in 1972. By all accounts, the release of this film has changed the media scene forever. Running on a slim budget of $6,000,000, the film had a national income of $133,698,921 and an international income of $110,163,857. Overall, the movie made $243,862,778 worldwide (Box office). The film paid for itself 40 times over. These shocking statistics demonstrate the uber-successful nature of the film itself. Of course, the acting, directing, and cinematography as a whole were incredible. By every mark, it was a great movie. However, this film did so well not only because of this. There is another factor at play. People all over the world love watching movies about mobsters. There is an almost innate human infatuation with the Mafia. This craze has determined not only the cinematic field but also the media in terms of news. 

News has increasingly become a means to entertain the public as opposed to something to inform, warn, or explain. This has come hand in hand with social media, where news is presented as a flashy headline that tries to lure in people who don’t know better. The news presented here is often gossip or simply highly exaggerated warnings that are extremely unlikely or simply impossible. While low-standard media is especially guilty of this, news, in general, has also swayed more toward highlighting topics that will catch the public’s attention. One example of this is Mafia crimes. However, this is a fairly under-researched field. One study on Australian media brings into light “the concept of 'news as entertainment', where the news media has increasingly become a part of the entertainment industry instead of a ‘forum for informed debate of key issues of public concern’” (Leiva). As far as entertaining media is concerned, Mafia-related crimes highly appeal to the public similar to Mafia movies. 

Movies such as The Godfather, The Departed, and The Irishman encompass the mysterious and revered lives of European-American Mafiosos. They have long running times and high revenues, their popularity never being concealed. The Departed, for example, highlights the lives of two rats. One is a member of the Irish Mafia who infiltrates the Boston Police Department, and the other is a police officer who joins the Mafia. The head of the Mafia, portrayed by Jack Nicholson, is a smooth-talking gangster who favors good drugs and fancy items. He says, famously, “I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me” (Scorsese). His character demands respect but earns likability. He never falters or fails. Even when he is beating people up he maintains class. With this plethora of well-liked Mafia members portrayed in the film, it is apparent that the public responds well to this content. Not only are they successful films, but these movies receive a platform in the first place. 

Media about gangs, on the other hand, does not share the same privileges. Gangs are represented in a horrible light when looked at in contrast to the Mafia. How gangs are represented in the media elicits a sense of real danger. For example, the Annapolis, Maryland government website contains an information page entitled “Gang Culture Influence in Popular Media” which acts as a kind of warning for what media kids should avoid. The entire page reads as a warning for Baby Boomer-era adults to help keep their kids shielded from this horrible culture. The sub-headings include: “Movies That Glamorize Gang Culture”, “Famous People That Openly Display Gang Culture”, and “Sample Lyrics From Popular Rap Songs”. The website warns that while some movies about gang culture have good acting and may be considered impressive forms of media, they should still be monitored. While this is the general tone around gang-related media, there are notable shows and movies worth mentioning. Ironically, or maybe not, some of these also appear on the Annapolis list of films to stay away from. 

One such example is the show The Wire (2002). This show has been highly celebrated since its initial release and acts as one of the most prominent fictional portrayals of gangs in media. The show follows the relationship between people of color in Baltimore and their relationship to the police department and law enforcement as a whole. The first scene of the show portrays the prevalence of violence in this neighborhood as it displays a dead body that had been killed by drug violence. The relationships in this show humanize gang members in a light not often seen. In an article praising the show, the author writes, “More consistently than any other crime show of its generation, The Wire challenges viewers’ perceptions of the racialization of urban space and the media conventions which support this” (Landau). This show proves that the media can have positive effects on how historically underrepresented groups are seen. However, this show, compared with Mafia media, was barely watched. With almost all gang-related media, or media that represents people of color in general, the platform is practically non-existent. 

The fact of the matter is that Black films are not watched nearly as much as white ones. Drew Harwell, in an article for the Washington Post, tells of how in a group of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members, none had ever seen “Straight Outta Compton ''. This movie came out the year of this article and was the highest-grossing film ever made by a Black actor. These members of the Academy, who were White males upwards of 70 years of age, didn’t think it was worth their time to watch the groundbreaking film. The article discusses how movies like “Straight Outta Compton” don’t interest members of the Academy because they deal with Black culture and the Black experience as opposed to films like “12 Years a Slave '' which deals with Black heroism. This kind of racism has plagued Hollywood since Black individuals entered the arena of film, and still holds back the success of Black films, especially those related to gang activity. 

The divergence of different groups of organized crime as they are represented in the media can be explained by only one thing: racism. Violence is prevalent in both media about gangs and the Mafia, however, gang violence is thought of as dangerous and scary while Mafia violence is cool. There are warnings about letting kids see gang-related media because it glamorizes this lifestyle. While there is something to be said about the glamorization of gangs, we cannot push for this without also warning about the glamorization of the Mafia. Of course, there is well-done media that portrays both gangs and the Mafia, however, the lack of a platform for gang-related media and Black media in general shows that there is a bigger issue at play. Gangs are thought of as an out-group, while the Mafia hits closer to home. White European Americans, who mostly rule Hollywood, can more easily relate to Mafias purely based on white demographics. From this it can be deciphered that the “Mafia Craze” is not simply the obsession with the Mafia but the preference towards white organized crime as a genre. 

Works Cited

“Gang Culture Influence in Popular Media.” Annapolis, MD, www.annapolis.gov/656/Gang-Culture-Influence-in-Popular-Media. Accessed 30 Oct. 2023.

Harwell, Drew. “The Staggering Numbers That Prove Hollywood Has a Serious Race Problem.” The Washington Post, 23 Feb. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/02/23/its-too-loud-and-other-reasons-oscar-voters-ignore-black-movies/. 

Konnikova, Maria. “Why Do We Admire Mobsters?” The New Yorker. September 25, 2015. https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/why-do-we-admire-mobsters. 

Landau, Neil. “Why Every Show Needs To Be More Like The Wire (Not Just the Facts, Ma’am’).” Series (Bologna), vol. 5, no. 1, 2019, pp. 75–86, https://series.unibo.it/article/view/8703/9564.

Leiva, Adrian, and David A. Bright. “‘The Usual Suspects’: Media Representation of Ethnicity in Organised Crime.” Trends in Organized Crime, vol. 18, no. 4, 2015, pp. 311–25, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-015-9251-2.

The Departed. Scorsese, Martin, et al.. Two-disc special ed., Distributed by Warner Home Video, 2007.

“The Godfather.” Box Office Mojo, www.boxofficemojo.com/releasegroup/gr3090829829/?ref_=bo_tt_gr_1. Accessed 1 Nov. 2023.

"The Target." The Wire, written by David Simon, directed by Clark Johnson and Tim Van Patten, HBO, 2002.

Part 2: 

In this assignment, I chose to write a scholarly piece attempting to bring to light the racist roots of the “Mafia craze”. At first, I wanted to write an opinion editorial. I had never written a piece in that genre before, however, it had always interested me. I spend a lot of my reading time with the New York Times op-ed section, reading snappy articles with somewhat surprising theses. I think that op-eds are playful and unexpected and therefore they are a lot of fun to read. They are always very engaging and I enjoy the casual yet assertive way in which most authors write them. Moreover, I like the fact that they often bring in personal narratives to better explain why they are writing the piece or why this piece is meaningful. For the Mafia vs. gang op-ed that I wanted to write, I had already planned out the personal anecdotes that I would include. 

Within Writing 340, we have been taught that your writing must respond to something, be that a current event, a relevant theme, or a personal reason. For my hypothetical op-ed, I wanted to start by discussing my Irish Bostonian roots and how that has led The Departed to be my favorite film. Growing up in Massachusetts, I think a lot of us take a certain amount of pride in the European roots that are so heavily connected to our culture. Hand in hand with this, we take pride in our toughness, our bluntness, and our aggression. Why wouldn’t we be obsessed with the Mafia? It’s everything we love about ourselves. On the other side of the spectrum, when I began taking social work classes at USC, I quickly learned the disparities between white Americans and people of color in this country, even in the media. One area that I felt was never discussed was how organized crime is so differently presented depending on whether the group is white or black. I wanted to tackle this topic in an op-ed format to explore that genre and because I thought that my topic was worthy of modeling the snappy pieces I had read. I was dead set on writing in this genre for Writing Project 3 before I began writing. However, when I began to write I realized that it was probably best to keep an op-ed for WP4. 

After doing Writing Project 2 in which we gathered sources and did general research, I felt I had a good idea of what I wanted to write about. I wanted to write a piece exploring the Mafia and gangs and how they are portrayed in the media. While I felt comfortable making this argument, I knew that I wanted to add many sources to bring in statistics and quotes. Op-eds can, of course, include sources, but I felt that the genre that would best fit my writing needs at this time would be more scholarly. When I write an op-ed on this topic, which I plan on doing for WP4, I want to be able to really focus on my writing style and not so much on the sources that I am including. 

For WP3, I wrote in a way similar to that of any other college essay that I have written. It has an introduction, body paragraphs, a conclusion, sources, and analysis. While I did not choose to stray too far from what I know in terms of genre, I still feel as though I took a leap of faith in terms of topic. Because of the open-ended nature of the assignment, I didn’t know what I wanted to write about. Once I settled on this topic, I still felt intimidated by the thought of writing in a genre unfamiliar to me. Because of this, I decided to space out the challenges ahead. Right now I am dealing with the challenge of writing about a topic I am not super familiar with, for WP4 I will focus on the challenge of writing in a new genre. 

Scholarly essays for the most part are written for groups who share similar interests and research backgrounds. This piece is a scholarly essay but I do not think it is so niche where it excludes large groups of people because the topic is too difficult to understand. In light of this, I imagined that I was writing for a scholarly magazine publication where the audience would be a wide group of people who all shared some level of interest in the topic. Maybe that magazine could be geared towards tackling social inequality issues or, on the other hand, it could be a media magazine. I think it would be very interesting to present this essay to movie buffs to give them a new perspective within a field they know very well.