Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey was born in the rural Mississippi into poverty life to a single mother in her teenage. Her life has been full of hardship throughout her teenage. She has always described her teenage years as the emotional life cycle of her life with rape at the age of nine, pregnancy at fourteen, death of her son in infancy and life with a barber she describes as her father in Tennessee. Today she is well known for her talk show that in history was the highest rated of its kind. Also a part of the talk show, she is regarded as the richest woman and as of 2012 she was the only black billionaire in North America. To some, she is the Oprah of the orphanages while to some she is the most influential person among women in the world. Oprah’s influence through the media has made her apart from others of her kind, and the manner in which she contained her adversity to become others benefactor has earned her the deserving praise.

The Oprah effect

The Oprah effect is an expression that explains the effect a person’s business can have by Oprah Winfrey endorsement or an appearance on her show. The effect has been alleged or documented diversely in different forms of businesses that include beef markets, music industry, book sales and also voting in elections. With the segment, Oprah’s book club in her show, new books, classics and obscure novels received much public attention and focused that whenever a book was selected it automatically became the bestselling book. Through her production company and appearance on her show has made it possible for other successful talk shows to be launched namely Dr. Phil, Rachael Ray and Dr. Oz. During the U.S presidential election, Winfrey endorsed Barack Obama for political office that includes series of rallies and fundraising. Winfrey’s influence was recognized with her appearance in South Carolina event that drew the largest crowd in 2007 for any political event.

Oprah’s Angel network

It was created in 1998 to support charitable events, projects and nonprofit organizations around the world. The network raised in excess of $80,000,000 with all the funds being given to charity programs. By 2010, the charity was dissolved and stopped taking donations. After the hurricane Katrina, the network was recreated and was able to raise about eleven million US dollars that were used for relief efforts with Oprah giving ten million US dollars. Before the Katrina and Rita hurricanes one-year anniversary, the network build homes in the affected areas.