Critical Summary of Oprah Winfrey - Essay Example

Critical Summary of Oprah Winfrey Oprah Winfrey As a female I have a passion to advance my and become a professional media proprietor and entrepreneur. My motivation to follow this career path emanates from the success of various women who has global influence in the mass media and communication industry. Oprah Winfrey is one of my role models in this career path. Indeed, I think the story of Oprah Winfrey’s life, success, and global influence relates to my career goals. Born in January 29, 1954, Oprah Gail Winfrey is a global image that represents an American media proprietor, entrepreneur, actor, and producer (AETN 2013, p. 1). The most significant thing about this high profile person is the Oprah Winfrey Show that attracted global interest from 1986 to 2011. The Oprah Winfrey Show drew immense influence subject to the influential personalities that Oprah Winfrey hosted on the show. National and international televisions broadcasted the show live to millions of television viewers across the globe. This related to globalization as it allowed the globe to follow the program from various locations across the world. Subject to its great global influence, professionalism, and continued presence, the Oprah Winfrey Talk Show won numerous international awards. Notably, Oprah Winfrey’s case is justifiable in my career path since it presents the challenges of this profession, manifests the potential of women in this industry, and depicts the global influence of a successful media proprietor, entrepreneur, and television host. Indeed, through her Oprah Winfrey Talk Show, Oprah Winfrey has amassed immense wealth where she stands out as the highest-paid performer on television and the richest self-made woman in America. Oprah is equally the richest African-American of the 20th century subject to her influence and entrepreneurial skills. Most people in the world identify with Oprah Winfrey through her television show that influences their way of living, reading, eating, exercising, thinking, feeling, doing politics, and associating. Oprah stands out as "the most powerful woman in the world” where she is one of the world’s opinion leaders. I seek to attain such influence after leaving the university through mass media and entrepreneurship. However, it is worth noting that it took a lot of sacrifice, time, professionalism, and persistence for her to overcome the challenges in her growth path and attain immense success and global influence. Born to unmarried teenage parents, Oprah came from a humble background just like me (AETN 2013, p. 1). Indeed, she grew up with her maternal grandmother as her mother looked for work in the North. Luckily, her grandmother gave a good education background by teaching her to read at an early age (American Academy of Achievement 2013, p. 1). However, Oprah faced numerous challenges that included primitive life and sexual molestation in her childhood, which caused emotional devastation (American Academy of Achievement 2013, p. 1). This forced her to become a sexually promiscuous teenager who later gave birth to a baby boy who died in infancy (American Academy of Achievement 2013, p. 1). Her father, Vernon Winfrey brought sense to her devastating life by subjecting her to a curfew and requiring her to read a book and write a book report each week (American Academy of Achievement 2013, p. 1). Her childhood and teenage life relates to the lives of many women including me. Indeed, after encountering a devastating teenage life, my mother brought sense into my life by motivating me to study hard and join the university. This is where I understood and focused on my career path just as Oprah started to flourish and become an honor student after realizing her dreams. She received the honor of the Most Popular Girl at the time and joined her high school speech team, which continued to shape her career (AETN 2013, p. 1). Currently I am a member of the debate club in our school and I believe this will greatly boost my professionalism in mass media and communication. Her success in the oratory contest secured her full scholarship to Tennessee State University, which offered a great platform to her career in journalism (AETN 2013, p. 1). Indeed, she premiered her life in journalism by working at a local radio station during her studies at the university (AETN 2013, p. 1). This manifests how Oprah maximized the great opportunities in her life since her career path would have been very challenging without the scholarship. I hope to work in a local radio station as an intern during the holidays and hence the correlation with Oprah’s life. Oprah joined Nashvilles WLAC-TV after graduating from Tennessee State University where she became the youngest news anchor at the station (AETN 2013, p. 1). This encourages me to pursue my dream in mass media and communication at an early age. Oprah manifests the need to advance our dreams when she moved to Baltimores WJZ-TV in 1976 where she co-anchored the six oclock news (AETN 2013, p. 1). She further moved to Chicago to host "A.M. Chicago" for WLS-TV in 1984 depicting the fact that her career was in the right path (AETN 2013, p. 1). Oprah’s professionalism in television broadcasting led to the renaming of the show to “The Oprah Winfrey Show” within a year. The Oprah Winfrey Show became the highest-rated talk show in television history in 1986 after premiering in national media (AETN 2013, p. 1). The show has since won numerous awards including the Outstanding Host award and the Outstanding Talk/Service Program award while Oprah won the International Radio and Television Societys "Broadcaster of the Year" Award (American Academy of Achievement 2013, p. 1). Having won so many awards at a young age, Oprah demonstrates how a professional, good career choice, and the urge to advance enhance a career path. I seek to adopt this notion in my career path. Oprah continued to increase her global influence and success as a media proprietor by establishing the Harpo Studios in 1988, writing six books, producing films, and acting in movies (AETN 2013, p. 1). This portrays the need for diversity in a career path for purposes of maintaining relevance and enhancing success in a given industry. Her global influence led to the emergence of the phrase the "The Oprah Effect" in specific television programs that featured global superstars (AETN 2013, p. 1). "The Oprah Effect" has been effective across the globe where it delivered over one million votes to Obama when Oprah endorsed US presidential candidate Barack Obama during the 2008 American presidential election (AETN 2013, p. 1). Her influence on the American Community equally manifested itself through her books that inspired many American and other authors. She has also influenced businesspersons, musicians, media personalities, and future journalists like me. Indeed, her prominence enabled Oprah Winfrey show to attract high profile celebrities like the late Michael Jackson (AETN 2013, p. 1). Her success in entrepreneurship is also alive with her partnership in Oxygen Media, Inc., a cable channel and interactive network presenting programming designed primarily for women. Moreover, she launched the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) in 2011 after the last episode of Oprah Winfrey Show (AETN 2013, p. 1). This will cement her place in the media industry and encourages me to diversify my career goals with an aim of remaining relevant in the industry. After 25 years in the media and over 5,000 broadcasts, Oprah has made great influence in the globe where she entertained, inspired, and enlightened millions of viewers (Nielsen Cassandra Ranking Report 2009, p. 1). On a compassionate note, Oprah inspires me to give back to the society after a successful career. Oprah was very generous to the society where she launched the $100,000 "Use Your Life Award” in 2000 for the people using their own lives to improve the lives of others. She also built schools, donated to charity, and rescued abused children (Stanley 2011, p. 1) using her monies as part of her humanitarian work. This resulted to major broadcasting and humanitarian awards that added to her fortune estimated to be over $2.9 billion by Forbes (Forbes 2014, p. 1). Because of her global influence, success, and contribution to the world, President Barack Obama awarded Oprah Winfrey the nations highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 (American Academy of Achievement 2013, p. 1). Works Cited AETN 2013, Oprah Winfrey Biography, retrieved 2 May 2014, American Academy of Achievement 2013, Oprah Winfrey Biography, retrieved 2 May 2014, < http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/win0bio-1> Forbes 2014, Oprah Winfrey, retrieved 2 May 2014, Nielsen Cassandra Ranking Report 2009, Oprah Winfreys Official Biography, retrieved 2 May 2014, < http://www.oprah.com/pressroom/Oprahs-Book-Club-Hosts-a-Live-Webcast-on-Oprahcom> Stanley, A 2011, ‘Television Diva Gives Thanks and Signs Off,’ The New York Times, retrieved 2 May 2014, < http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/26/arts/television/oprah-winfrey-ends-her-show-on-a-valedictory-note.html?_r=0> Read More