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MA Media and Creative Cultures
Maria Tomprou
A REAL GAME CHANGER OR INFLUENCED BY MEDIA POWER STRUCTURES?
Nowadays, many people support that Oprah Winfrey is a role model and a queen of media that offered to change many ideas/concepts on TV and succeeded to bring diversity in that. However, there is much difference between how the media used Oprah’s story in comparison with how Oprah used media to leave an impact on that.
Abstract
Oprah Winfrey is an icon in the mass media and communication industries in the United States.
The project aims to consider the impact which Oprah left in media; how or If media manipulated Oprah Winfrey and If Oprah had the freedom to create the context that she wanted in media or she was directed by media laws/power? The role of media between the ’70s and ’80s and how dominant was? How media used Oprah and how Oprah used media during the first steps of her career? , What benefits had media to let Oprah enter at TV and speak in public about racial differences? , How and who people got inspired by Oprah’s Winfrey story?
To answer these questions clearly, first, there is an analysis of media theorists such as Noam Chomsky, Stuart Hall, Michel Foucault who analyzed the political perspective /economy of media and focused on black genres and diversity issues in media. Secondly, I am going to search for the history between the ’60s and ’70s and the history of American TV /talks shows for this reason my research methods will be the history of media/media theories, American studies, and celebrity studies.