June 9, 2011 - Issue 430 |
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25 Years of The
O(prah) Effect:
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The end of a staple in American pop culture culminated last week with the Oprah Winfrey show calling it a day. After 25 years, pop culture icon, Oprah Winfrey, decided to end her daily talk show and concentrate on her cable channel, the OWN (Oprah Winfrey) network. It wasn’t just the end of a talk show. It was the end of an era. People want to talk about Oprah just being a talk show hostess. In fact, they called her the “Queen of Daytime Television.” But was it as sample as that? What made the
Oprah phenomenon an “effect” on society in and of itself? The Oprah Effect
made people instant stars, bestsellers, box office hits and her last miracle,
a President of the No other television
personality, with the possible exception of Walter Cronkite, who was called
“the most trusted man in America” during his 19 years as the news anchor
of the CBS 6 O’clock News, had (has) the American trust like Oprah Winfrey.
Winfrey is to our generation what Walter Cronkite was to our grandparents’
and parents’ generations. Cronkite made the dinner news the prized reporting
job in Popular culture
in our society reflects social norms that are adapted by most in our society.
From language to music to behavior, pop culture sets the tone for The pop culture buzz for “just being oneself” is being “authentic.” Oprah presented authenticity on her show everyday, giving authentic people the opportunity to be themselves, and challenging anything that appeared to be inauthentic. Oprah embraced the sick, the poor, the abused, the abased, the aggrieved and rationalized with the arrogant, the decadent, the disturbed and the disgraced. Whether it was majesty or misery, Oprah found the silver lining that made us all feel better by the end of the show. Even her dissatisfaction with herself became a study in self-acceptance. Oprah even challenged Rap, and kept it real as real could get. In fact, Oprah was “keepin’ it real” before it became a pop culture term. She defined it. People make jokes
about Oprah’s money, but rarely is one of her wealth so commonly accepted
- another phenomenon hard to explain. She is of the people, but not of
the people. She built schools, sent over 64,000 students to college and
found creative ways to share her wealth. A constant demonstration that
she was of the people, and when the people were looking for a leader of
the nation, so was she. Oprah Winfrey had never peddled her influence
for political gain in the past, but she did not resist weighing in on
the future of the country at a critical juncture, at the risk of alienating
her audience. Some thought they would “boycott” Oprah. Guess what - like
Teflon, Oprah walked away without a scratch. It was then that we understood
the power of O. While she’s not going far, “What was Oprah talkin’ about today?” BlackCommentator.com Columnist, Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad, is a national columnist, managing director of the Urban Issues Forum and author of Saving The Race: Empowerment Through Wisdom. His Website is AnthonySamad.com. Click here to contact Dr. Samad. |
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