Oprah Winfrey:
Talk Show Host and Friend

by Jennifer Hollett

One of the most striking features of radio, television, and movies is that they give an illusion of a face-to-face relationship with the "star." This seeming personal relationship between the spectator and the performer is referred to as a para-social relationship. The more a performer adjusts his performance to the response of the audience, the more the audience tends to make the response anticipated. Characteristically the interaction is one-sided, non-dialectical, and controlled by the performer.1

The various ways that an audience may come to know, like, and respect a television star's persona are quite complex and involve a multitude of messages gathered over time. The spectacular fact about this persona is that it can claim and achieve a sense of intimacy with a crowd of strangers. This intimacy is extremely influential with the great numbers of home TV viewers who willingly receive and share in it. Television viewers know the persona in the same fashion they know their chosen friends: through direct observation and interpretation of appearance, gestures and voice, and conversation and conduct in a variety of situations.2

Oprah Winfrey, possibly the most successful woman in television history, is a prime example of this kind of persona. Winfrey has achieved a tremendous amount of success in her professional life, (The Oprah Winfrey Show is in its ninth nationally syndicated season), - despite the daunting odds of being born black and poor, and having suffered from child abuse. Considering her self-made wealth (her estimated worth is $250 million) and her influence (her show is watched by fifteen million viewers daily), Winfrey may be the most powerful woman in the United States.3 Oprah's success is accountable in great part to the evolution of both her personal legend and her accessible communication style. The interaction of these two factors encourages Winfrey's audience to sense that they know her as an individual and to feel intimate with her - despite the actual distance between Winfrey and her viewers.

When watching the Oprah Winfrey Show, television audience members enter into a para-social relationship with Winfrey. In this para-social interaction, the audience has the experience of face-to-face communication when watching television. This `intimacy at a distance' is such that people count television characters, especially TV personas such as talk show hosts, amongst their own friends and family members. The informal, ritualized, and interactive style of talk show hosts encourage this through a variety of ways. A conversational style of speech, a direct gaze at the camera, or direct reference to the audience gives the viewers an apparent role in the interaction. This allows them to feel that they have a one-to-one relationship with her. It is this phenomenon that motivates TV viewers to mail Winfrey 5,000 letters each week (Winfrey), and inspires fans to make comments like the following, "Oprah is me. We're both black, we're both the same age, we treat people the same way. That could be me."4

Compared to other talk show hosts, Winfrey opts for self-disclosure rather than discretion. Self-disclosure is concerned with information about one's self which is not readily available or otherwise easily accessible to others and must be revealed by the communicator herself. For example, Winfrey's audience would not know about her sexual abuse as a child if she had not chosen to talk and reveal it on various episodes of her television show.5

Use of self-disclosure tends to facilitate communication and intimacy, and give a greater sense of being in a relationship. As Winfrey's popularity increased, so did the frequency of her personal disclosures - from childhood memories of incest to relationships with men to her struggles with weightloss.6

TV viewers are supplied with a great deal of information about Winfrey's personal life. In a survey that I conducted for the purposes of this paper 7, a 19-year-old female student explained, "I know she suffered from child abuse, ran the N.Y. marathon, she's engaged, she likes Philly Steak sandwiches, she's renovating her home, she's in "home improvement hell", she lost weight, her cook's name is Rosy...she's apprehensive about having kids, she works out to "I'm every woman", and she's the top earning woman in the U.S.A."Winfrey's self disclosures are extremely personal and present the audience with a challenge.

Winfrey's numerous personal confessions play a key role in the fostering of a para-social relationship with her audience and her disclosures offer her audiencee a unique challenge: to agree or disagree, confirm or contradict, confront or support the speaker, and in doing so, to enter in a partnership of sorts with Winfrey.8

Another interesting feature in Winfrey's interpersonal repertoire is her use of different voices, both in terms of wording and vocal intonation. TV viewers can easily recognize the serious Oprah, the playful Oprah, the empathetic Oprah, the angry Oprah, and the "just folks" Oprah. When she is playful or handling a lighthearted issue, for example on the "Thank You Day" show or "Sleepless in Seatle" show, Winfrey liberally peppers her talk with slang and familiar references. On the other hand, the "serious" Oprah pronounces her words very carefully and avoids slangs. The audience therefor knows when she is talking for them, and it knows when she is talking to them, even when Winfrey doesn't employ direct address. Winfrey talks to the audience as if they are her personal friends, as they would talk to their own friends.9

Yet perhaps the strongest signifier of the audience's relationship with Winfrey is the non-verbal interaction that takes place between the talk show host and her audience and guests. In a video montage used to open a television salute to Oprah Winfrey, she is shown touching audience member after audience member, grabbing their arms and asking their questions. She even rested her chin on woman's shoulder, virtually cuddling her.

In an episode which aired in November, 1991, Winfrey focused on the fashion choices of her staff. She deemed that the majority of her employees were not "as cute as they could be." Throughout the show she played with their hair, touched their shoulders, and generally invaded their personal space. The employees allowed and enthusiastically participated in this nationally televised warm-hearted critique. This was a type of criticism that one might normally receive from one's closest friends.10

One woman that Haag interviewed pointed to this touching as the most attractive thing about the show. She said, "Oprah reaches out and touches people, and a lot of folks don't have touch in their lives. That's very comforting."11

While Winfrey enters the personal, intimate space of her guests and audience, she also makes meaningful, sustained eye contact with them, giving them the sense that she is really interested in what they have to say. And she reacts, no holds barred, giggling, screaming, and even in tears at the appropriate times, and allows us to do the same.12

On a November 24, 1994 episode in which she called "Thank You Day", Winfrey shed a few tears while old friends were reunited to share a word of thanks. In between shots of the guests on stage, there were close-up shots of Winfrey's teary eyes. These images of Winfrey provided another opportunity for the fosturing of intimacy between the at-home viewer and Oprah.

Recently The Oprah Winfrey Show has featured a new format for the closing credits. As the credits roll over the screen, there are various shots of Winfrey as "herself". She is seen shaking the audience members' hands, thanking the guests, as well as offering words of encouragement. One episode closed with a shot of Winfrey walking a teenage boy, with her arms around his shoulders saying, "It takes a real man to do what you did."

Occasionally the show intro includes something to the same style. In a recent November episode, the show began with Winfrey walking out and asking her studio audience if anyone had bought a new outfit for today's show. The show then continued on a topic unrelated to fashion - forgiveness. These new segments on the show invite the TV audience to see the real Winfrey live and in action. The audience is given a chance to go backstage, and see what goes on while the cameras aren't rolling.

One 19 year-old-male that I surveyed said he liked Oprah as a talk show host because, "she shares stories of her life to use as examples and therefore you see the 'everyday' side of her, and can relate to her experiences." As well he mentioned that Winfrey is a role model and critic of his.

Another 19 year-old-male, who said he considers Winfrey to be his therapist, commented that Winfrey is different than the other talk show hosts because she is "more real ... like a mother or grandmother." It is Winfrey's para-social relationship with her audience members that allows them to feel intimate enough with her to openly make comments about her feelings, personality, and dress.

The para-social relationship is also evident in the choice of The Oprah Winfrey Show's theme song - "I'm Every Woman", by Whitney Houston. In the summer of 1992, Winfrey had been exercising and dieting in order to achieve the weight she presently maintains. During that time, Whitney Houston's song "I'm Every Woman" was at the top of the charts. Winfrey began listening to it when she worked out every morning, using the inspirational lyrics of the song to keep her motivated throughout her weight struggle.

For the beginning of the '93 season, Winfrey found someone to make close to 100 versions of the song (from techno to contemporary) and from that point on, the song introduced her show. The song suggests that Winfrey is "every woman", and the audience is reminded of this and her weight struggle every time they hear the theme song for the show.

This paper has focused on the role of Winfrey's communication patterns in the construction of her para-social relationship with her audience. Winfrey enters our private space via the television set placed in out family room, our kitchen, and even our bedroom, on a regular daily basis, but she does not bring us larger than life pictures of public space. Rather she brings us the intimate and the private to the private realm of the home.

Only a good friend could tell a friend when she is not as cute as she could be. Winfrey herself has legendary, larger than life proportions, yet as her theme song suggests - she is every woman. It is through the skillful application of the communication patterns we associate with friendship that she manages to overcome the conflict between Oprah as rich talk show host and Oprah as friend.13

2 Horton, Donald, and Wohl, R. Richard. "Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction." Communication Studies. 1993, p.157

3 Gerosa, Melina. "What Makes Oprah Run?" Ladies Home Journal. Nov. 1994: 200, 27

4 Haag, Laurie L. "Oprah Winfrey: The Construction of Intimacy in the Talk Show Setting." Journal of Popular Culture. V 26. Spring 1993 p.115

5 Haag, 117

6 Haag, 117

7 One of my methods for gathering data concerning The Oprah Winfrey Show's audience included distributing a questionnaire that asked the respondents questions pertaining to their viewing habits, their opinions on the show, and their thoughts of Oprah Winfrey. In all twenty people were polled: 10 women and 10 men (4 of the respondents were black, 1 was oriental, and the rest were white.) The audience that I surveyed are all students at Concorida University, studying disciplines such as journalism, english, art, political science, and communications.

8 Curran, J. "Rethinking the Media as a Public Sphere." Communication and Citizenship: Journalism and the Public Sphere in the New Age Media. London: Routledge, 1971. p.43

9 Haag, Laurie L. "Oprah Winfrey: The Construction of Intimacy in the Talk Show Setting." Journal of Popular Culture. V 26. Spring 1993 p.115

10 Haag, 119

11 Haag, 119

12 Haag, 119

13 Haag, 120

References

Altman, S. "How Oprah Will Stay Slim This Season ... and You Can Too!" Woman's World. 8 Nov. 1994: 19

Cerulo, K.A., Chayko, M., and Ruane, J.M. "Technological Ties That Bind: Media-generated Primary Groups." Communications Research. 1992: 19, 109 - 129

Curran, J. "Rethinking the Media as a Public Sphere." Communication and Citizenship: Journalism and the Public Sphere in the New Age Media. London: Routledge, 1971.

Gerosa, Melina. "What Makes Oprah Run?" Ladies Home Journal. Nov. 1994: 200, 278 - 281

Haag, Laurie L. "Oprah Winfrey: The Construction of Intimacy in the Talk Show Setting." Journal of Popular Culture. V 26. Spring 1993: 115 - 121

Harrison, B. "The Importance of Being Oprah." The New York Times Magazine. 11 July 1989

Horton, Donald, and Wohl, R. Richard. "Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction." Communication Studies. 1993.

Mair, George. Oprah Winfrey - The Real Story. New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1994.

Winfrey, Oprah. The Oprah Winfrey Show. 1 Dec. 1994.