Media studies portfolio

This profile analysis will be conducted on Oprah Winfrey to assess the lavish lifestyle stars and celebrities live. With fame comes a great amount of money and responsibility to spend it wisely in the eyes of the public. The profile analysis will be conducted by assessing the ideological and cultural values of the chosen star, Oprah Winfrey.

 

Oprah Winfrey was born in Mississippi in 1954 to Vernita Lee and Vernon Winfrey (AAA, 2015). Her love for TV and news anchoring began when she was offered a job at a local news station that served the African American community. After co-anchoring at a few news stations Oprah finally joined a show called AM Chicago which was later changed to The Oprah Winfrey Show. In the shows second year of running it won three Daytime Emmy Awards including Oprah’s Outstanding Host Award which helped her achieve her Star status (AAA, 2015). A star can be defined as an elite type of celebrity based on their outstanding professional achievement (Shaughnessy, 2012, p417). She then went on to act in many award winning movies. Her love for producing quality entertainment led her to form her own production company, Harpo Productions (AAA, 2015). Harpo Productions is involved in film and television production as well as magazine publishing and the Internet.   

 

Because of Oprah’s humble beginnings, being charitable has always been part of her ideological and cultural values. Ideological values can be defined as a set of ideas, beliefs and feelings by which people collectively make sense of the world (Shaughnessy, 2012, 34).