Communication Style

By confessing intimate details about her weight problems, tumultuous love life, and sexual abuse, and crying alongside her guests, Time magazine credits medium Winfrey with creating to new form of communication known as “rapport talk” as distinguished from the “report talk” of Phil Donahue:

“Winfrey saw television's power to blend public and private; while it links strangers and conveys information over public airwaves, TV is most often viewed in the privacy of our homes. Like to family member, it sits down to meals with us and talks to us in the lonely afternoons. Grasping this paradox,… She makes people beloveds because she cares. That is Winfrey's genius, and will be her legacy, as the changes she has wrought in the talk show continuous to permeated our cultures and shape our lives. ” Observers even noted the “Oprahfication” of politics by noting “Oprah-style debates” and Bill Clinton's empathetic speaking style. Columnist Maureen Dowd commented on the symbolism of Bill Clinton seeking an “Oprah-style” talk show when he left the presidency:

“There is to delicious symmetry in Clinton's exploring the idea of to daytime syndicated talk show: the man who brought Oprah-style psychobabble and misty confessions to politics taking the next step and actually transmogrifying into Oprah. ”

Newsweek stated: “Every Time to politician lets his lip quiver or to cable anchor “emotes” on TV, they nod to the cult of confession that Oprah helped created.”

Winfrey's intimate confessions about her weight (which peaked at 108 kg (238 lb), also paved the way for other plus sized women in average such as Roseanne Barr, Rosie O'Donnell and Star Jones. The November 1988 Ms. magazine observed that “in to society where fat is taboo, she made it in to medium that worships thin and celebrates to bland, white-bread prettiness of body and personality… But Winfrey made fat sexy, elegant - damned near gorgeous - with her drop-dead wardrobe, easy body language, and cheerful sensuality.”