Oprah Winfrey: The Media Mogul Supporting Communities During The COVID-19 Pandemic
Oprah Gail Winfrey (born January 29, 1954) is an American talk show host, actress, television producer, media executive, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history and ran in national syndication for 25 years from 1986 to 2011.
Winfrey was born to a teenage single mother and later raised in inner-city Milwaukee. After a series of molestation, abuse and suffering a miscarriage at 14, Winfrey was then sent to live with the man she calls her father, Vernon Winfrey, a barber in Tennessee, and landed a job in radio while still in high school.
By 19, she was a co-anchor for the local evening news. Winfrey’s often emotional, extemporaneous delivery eventually led to her transfer to the daytime talk show arena, and after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place, she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated. By the mid-1990s, Winfrey had reinvented her show with a focus on literature, self-improvement, mindfulness, and spirituality. Though she was criticized for unleashing a confession culture, promoting controversial self-help ideas, and having an emotion-centred approach she has also been praised for overcoming adversity to become a benefactor to others.
In addition to her talk show, Winfrey also produced and co-starred in the 1989 drama miniseries The Women of Brewster Place and a short-lived spin-off, Brewster Place. As well as hosting and appearing on television shows, Winfrey co-founded the women’s cable television network Oxygen which was the initial network for her Oprah After the Show program from 2002 to 2006 before moving to Oprah.com when Winfrey sold her stake in the network. She is also the president of Harpo Productions.
Oprah Winfrey has starred in several movies including The Color Purple as a housewife Sofia, A Wrinkle in Time as Mrs Which and Beloved. She’s also voiced characters like Gussie the goose in Charlotte Web (2006) and Judge Bumbleton in Bee Movie (2007). Oprah has also co-authored five books and publishes a magazine called O, The Oprah Magazine.
In 2004, Winfrey became the first black person to rank among the 50 most generous Americans and she remained among the top 50 until 2010. By 2012, she had given away about $400 million to educational causes. In 2013, Winfrey donated $12 million to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom later that same year.
In 1998, Winfrey created Oprah’s Angel Network, a charity that supported charitable projects and provided grants to nonprofit organizations around the world. Oprah’s Angel Network raised more than $80,000,000 ($1 million of which was donated by Jon Bon Jovi). Winfrey personally covered all administrative costs associated with the charity, so 100% of all funds raised went to charity programs. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Oprah created the Oprah Angel Network Katrina registry which raised more than $11 million for relief efforts. Winfrey personally gave $10 million to the cause.
With many people drifting into economic hardship following the COVID-19 lockdown in the US, media mogul Oprah pledged $10 million in April, to help affected people across the country and in places where she grew up. A portion of the donation — $1 million was earmarked for a feeding initiative, America’s Food Fund which engages in feeding people through a network of food banks.
In July, she also donated $3 million through the Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation in support of COVID-19 relief efforts in South Los Angeles, California. Oprah has been the epitome of generosity, giving back to her community and people around the world. It’s only right that we honour her as part of the people helping the world during the pandemic.
Writer: Oluwadara Oluwatoye
Designer: Kume Akpubi
