Oprah Winfreys Achievement - Research Paper Example

?Running Head: OPRAH WINFREY ACHIEVEMENT Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts Oprah Winfrey’s Achievement The world has witnessed many talented people and those aiming for success and greatness in the form of celebrities and legends. Many people have come, played their part in the world and left proudly leaving their history and footsteps behind for the world to appreciate. There are many living legends who have emerged successfully with talent, found their purpose and have nurtured it in solitude as well as in the companionship of this world. One such celebrity and living example of success is Oprah Winfrey. Oprah Winfrey, the victim of molestation, child abuse, and domestic violence was indeed committed to bringing out the excellence in her. The black woman, destined for greatness, achieved the heights of her career as an actress, talk show host, proprietor, philanthropist and a producer. Fighting hard with all the difficulties, Winfrey believed in doing the best at this moment which could put her in the best place for the next moment. The current study shall elaborate upon the achievements of self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show lady Oprah Winfrey during her career until now. Oprah Winfrey Oprah Winfrey believes that the big secret in life is that there is no big secret. According to her, all the goals and targets can be attained once the individual is willing to make effort for it. One of the most prominent, successful and notable women in history, Oprah Winfrey, has been a charitable woman and a lady who has been struggling since her childhood. Certain values and teachings have guided her throughout the life; sometimes experiences taught her, and at others, she taught others to experiences. The Renaissance woman, Oprah Winfrey, has indeed revolutionized the female world through her determination and courage. Oprah Winfrey is an American media manager, an actress, a talk show host, and a producer and philanthropist. She is acknowledged globally for her multi-award-winning, self-titled, talk show which has gained the status of the top-ranked television program in the history and has also achieved her national syndication from the year 1986 to 2011. Winfrey has been awarded the rank of the richest African American and has been known as the supreme black philanthropist in the history of America. There also came a time in her life that Winfrey was the only black billionaire and the most influential woman of the world. Personal Life and Scandal In order to know the achievements of an individual, it is good to highlight the personal life and conditions of the brought up and living that the person went through. The early life of Winfrey actually started with a lot of scandals. Oprah Winfrey was the victim of child abuse and molestation at an early age, but still managed to stand out with all her innate talent and abilities. Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, to an unmarried teenage mother. Spending the first six precious years of her childhood in rural poverty, Winfrey was often compelled to wear potato sacks as her dress. At an early life, her uncle, cousin, and a family friend physically abused Winfrey. Due to this inhumane incident in her life, the lady managed to run away from her home when soon after that at the age 14, she became pregnant. She gave birth to a son, who died shortly after delivery. All these hardships and tragedies made her feel betrayed by her family and relatives. The beginning of Winfrey’s life witnessed few horrible tragedies, which the traditional and modern world would never favor of, and which would go below all the standards of humanity and personality. Starting from the age of 9 and continuing up to 13 years, Winfrey experienced a horrible series of child molestation by her family and relatives. This emotional devastation was added when she was forced by her grandmother to work and set an example of child abuse and was beaten up in case she made some mistakes (Garson, Helen, 2004). Thougha brief description of Winfrey’s personal life, it still details all the hardships that she went through. One can hardly believe that a child like Winfrey, subject to the violence and criminal actions of others, could also stand up and recollect her own energy and enthusiasm. The lady, throughout her life, remained a symbol of success, ambition, vibrancy, willingness and determination. Even after a tough life, she has set the example of highest achievements in her professional life and remarkable career. Professional Career and Achievements The excellence in career and professional capacity is the dream of all those people who seek the best in themselves. These career conscious people rejuvenate their lives through their determination, willingness and motivations. Somewhere in the world, they are able to find the motivating and inspiring elements for themselves, either within them or in their outer surroundings. Oprah Winfrey has been one such name, which appeared in Forbes 500 and other such magazines as the best of the ambitious people. Winfrey has received such a treatment from media which is inevitably loaded with adjectives and, that too the ones in superlatives. She has been regularly defined as the most influential and empowered woman in the American media. This all exists because of her celebrated skills to promote her ideas, products and causes to the general public. All this is now termed as the Oprah effect. Professional Shift The professional achievements of Oprah Winfrey, despite of all the social violence and pathetic behaviors, prove her to be a lady of substance. One can always question: what made the poor, spoiled child reach the heights of professional success? The answer to this question lies in the extraordinary qualities and abilities that Winfrey possesses. The commitment to her cause and career for the betterment of her personality as well as the society are the factors which always convinced the African American lady to feel triumph. Through the readings and other searches, it is apparent that the bold lady struggled hard to pave her way through the hardships. The major achievements of the Oprah Winfrey include The Oprah Winfrey Show, which has been acknowledged as one of the most successful talk show of its time on the television. The 22 years of the program’s popularity and success took Winfrey’s name high up the skies of accomplishment (Garson, 15; Illouz, 112). The achievements of Winfrey relied on her willingness and confidence to empathize with the viewers by revealing the happenings in her personal life. For instance, her abusive childhood was made public by her, her battle with her weight and the teen pregnancy was unveiled to the public by her own will. These private incidents from her own life have been used by her as reliable examples of achieving success in the face of hardships and personal impediments (Christine & Kiran Pienaar, 525). The career of Winfrey apparently had begun in the year 1983, when she started hosting the WLS-TV's half-hour low-rated morning talk show, AM Chicago. This show, in a matter of few months, elevated from the last rating and overtook Donahue while being the Chicago’s highest rated talk show. Later, she signed a syndication deal with King World and started a television show, At the Movies, which was later renamed as The Oprah Winfrey Show. Form the short time duration, the show was extended to a full hour, and was internationally broadcasted during the year 1986. One of the other major achievements of Oprah Winfrey was the passing of Oprah Bill in 1993, which was based on her plea to the Senate of United States for formulating a national catalog of convicted child abusers. Besides this, there have been various other accomplishments of Winfrey which were based on her own life experiences. These included the establishment of literary programs, scholarships, and laying down the foundation of Oprah Angel Network in order to assist the people in helping one another. Moreover, Winfrey has also been the spokesperson for an organization, named A Better Chance, which is the source of providing the good opportunities of learning for the students of inner city (New Crises, 59). The long career of this successful lady, Oprah Winfrey, included many other achievements such as working for films, publications, websites and radio. Beginning from 1985, Winfrey has many films to her credit which included Sofia, Beloved, Bee Movie and others. She coauthored five books and published The Opera Magazine which also proved to be the best seller of 2009. The interactive content and resources to her show were made available on the website Oprah.com. Through her website and show, Winfrey also begun the "Oprah's Child Predator Watch List", which was meant to look for the accused child molesters. Religion The personality and accomplishments of Oprah Winfrey believed in doing the best at this moment which could put her in the best place for the next moment. This is not just the fact but has also been illustrated through her works in the entire career. The lady has proven her greatness in the various religious capacities. One has to believe the strength of willpower and determination that Winfrey possesses. From being a guru to a minister to being a spiritual counselor, she has depicted utmost mutability showing that she is capable of playing various roles in different capacities simultaneously while focusing upon the "The Oprah Show” (Alexandra, ‘Oprah Winfrey: A religious leader for modern times’). The founding of a new religion, The Oprah Religion, and establishing her own church proved Winfrey as a deity and pontiff to the public. The other chief contribution of Winfrey towards religion includes a self-help program The Secret, which makes the claim that the lives of people can be altered through vibrations or positive thoughts. According to her, these positive thoughts would be a reason for the people to attract more positive images the ultimate will be the good things happening to the people. Moreover, in the year 2008, Winfrey also authorized spiritual teacher and author Eckhart Tolle and his published book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, to spread his thoughts and teachings amongst the common people. Fan Base The highest fan following of Oprah Winfrey has been a key indicator of her achievements and popularity. The popular actress, producer, talk show host and philanthropist, has a good PR amongst the billion of viewers around the globe. The 1991-1992 seasons depicted the highest following for the Winfrey’s talk show, as more than 13.1 million viewers in U.S. watched it every day. The variations in the popularity continued until 2008, when The Oprah Show was being aired in 140 countries across the world and was estimated to be watched by 46 million people on weekly basis in the US (Cockcroft, Lucy, 2008). The Harris poll indicated Winfrey as the most favorite television personality of America in the years 1998, 2000, 2002 to 2006, and 2009. The lady was also particularly famous among Democrats, women, Baby Boomers, political moderates, Southern Americans, Generation X, and East Coast Americans. The popularity achieved by Oprah Winfrey outside United States was also noteworthy. She had especially become popular in the Arab world. The modesty in Winfrey's dress, mixed with the triumph shown by her over abuse and adversity has also become the reason for most of the Arabian women to accept her as their role models. Consequently, an Arab satellite channel, MBC 4, focused their complete programming around the reruns of her show for the reason that a record number of women were being drawn to it in Saudi Arabia. Oprah Winfrey, undoubtedly, has large number of fans all over the world. Her biggest strength that led her to this achievement is her unique and compelling style as a talk show host. Her diverse life has given her a lot to talk about and the right words to win audience easily. The Oprah Winfrey Show had approximately 21 million viewers a week in over a hundred countries. She is not just a show host but also a shrewd businesswoman. Oprah has built upon her initial success in television and taken steps to invest into many other ventures, which include creating her own production company. That company is now involved in producing and broadcasting her shows. Philanthropy The multi talented talk show host, actress and a lady proved her capabilities in every fields including philanthropy. She does not only talk about talent and promotion of her skills but has also proven the entire scope of talent with her own participation in all the capacities of working. The contributions of Winfrey to the field of philanthropy include the creation of the Oprah's Angel Network in the year 1998. It is a charity organization which was established to sustain and maintain the projects for charity and also provides funding to various nonprofit organizations (NGOs) operating all across the globe. The amount raised by the Oprah's Angel Network was even more than $80,000,000, and approximately $1 million of this entire amount was the donation of Jon Bon Jovi to the organization. All the other administrative expenditures connected to this charity were covered by Winfrey personally. Therefore, the charity programs initiated by the organization received 100% of all the funds which were raised there. The shows of Oprah Winfrey raise money with the help of the advertisements of her public charity and, not only the public, but, more than any other American performers, she herself donates her own money personally to the charity. During the year 2005, Winfrey was ranked the first person amongst blacks by the Business Week to be listed as one of the 50 most generous philanthropists in America. She had earned this rank by donating approximately $303 million in the charity by the year 2007. The fact that Winfrey was ranked as 32nd most philanthropic personality is the evidence of her capabilities and skills in attaining the excellence throughout her career. Conclusion The personality possessed by Oprah Winfrey has been an impressive one. A mere talk show on television is generally thought to be the major credit that made her personality rise to become a global icon in cultural relationships during the time period of 1980s and a triumph in the years during 1990s. The entire thesis has argued the enhancement and boost of the media enterprise belonging to Oprah Winfrey along with her inclination to the iconic status as an outcome of the ambition, early life experiences and enthusiasm. The study also suggests the empowering religious motives of Winfrey and her achievements in the form of individual self-improvement and private initiatives over the mutual role-playing for the fulfillment of social needs and public funding. The vibrant personality of Winfrey depicts an unending list of her achievements and accomplishments in every capacity and field of profession in her life. Winfrey’s motto has always followed the values that dictated her to be the best and successful. Moreover, she has been courageous enough to tolerate all the hardships of her earlier life, deal with them boldly, and still stand in front of the world as a successful woman after sharing those intolerant experiences with the people. Work Cited Alexandra Le Tellier, Oprah Winfrey: A religious leader for modern times, Los Angeles Times, 2011, Print. American Academy of Achievement, America’s Beloved Best Friend, Web, 2012, Retrieved on April 28, 2012, Christine Marshall and Kiran Pienaar, ‘You are not alone’: the discursive construction of the ‘suffering victim’ identity on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 2005, pp. 525–546, Print. Cockcroft, Lucy, Oprah Winfrey Show suffers ratings slump, 2008, The Daily Telegraph Garson H.S., Oprah Winfrey: A Biography, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004, 15-18, Print. Illouz E., Oprah Winfrey and the Glamour of Misery: An Essay on Popular Culture, 2003, New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 112-115, Print. New Crises, The 84th Spingarn Medal Goes to Oprah, New Crisis,, 2008, Volume 107, Issue 6, pp. 59, Print. Read More