A Rhetorical Analysis Of Oprah Winfrey's Speech

546 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Medias influence on public opinion

The Cecil B. DeMille is an honorary accolade bestowed upon various individuals in the film industry for their outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment. In 2018, Oprah Winfrey was the first African-American woman to receive this award. Winfrey was nothing short of powerful when delivering her speech. Her message of equal representation in Hollywood, the need for the press, and speaking against sexual harassment and assault is displayed through the use of personal anecdote, emotionally vivid imagery, inclusion pronouns, and speech patterns that of the nation’s greatest leaders. Winfrey delivers a statement of equal representation of gender and race in acting roles through a personal anecdote of when she was a young girl. Her heartfelt story of watching the first black man to receive the Oscar for best actor during the height of the Civil Rights era showed that there was not equal roles and honorability given to people of color. Her humanizing image of “…watching from the cheap seats…” gave a relatable persona of having an arduous life. Winfrey’s experiences at a young age can be considered similar to those watching her on a TV screen, which has more people agreeing with her arguments in the speech. …show more content…

Winfrey provides a feeling of togetherness as she uses pronouns such as “we” to give a message of unity to support the press, and the awareness they bring. Her powerful diction reveals her position that America needs the news, especially in the speculative society to “…[keep them] from turning a blind eye to corruption and to injustice, to tyrants and victims, and secrets and lies…” (Winfrey 1). Her vigorous diction reveals to the audience that the importance of news sources is vital to developing opinions, and exposing truths and lies within

Show More
Related

  • Hillary Clinton Speech Rhetorical Analysis

    1104 Words  | 3 Pages

    On September 5, 1995 Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a speech to the United Nations 4th World Conference during a Women Plenary Session, located in Beijing, China. Clinton spoke about how women around the world were not treated equally, how women rights should be equal to human rights, and the ghastly abuse and discrimination women faced around the world. The reason for the conference was to strengthen women, families, and societies in order to empower women to taking control of their lives and not be subject to such discrimination. She emphasized how education, health care, jobs, and political rights were not equal between genders and that the world needed to change. Clinton gave a very convincing speech because of her use of rhetorical techniques. The use of pathos, ethos, logos, and anaphora created a powerful, persuasive argument against the way women were treated around the world. Clintons main goal of this speech was to appeal to the audience and convince them that this is unequal treatment is an immense matter and needs to be addressed all over the world.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Lauren Zalaznick's 'Ted Talk'

    302 Words  | 1 Pages

    Lauren Zalaznick’s Ted Talk: The Conscience of Television is descriptive and explanatory as she incorporates the idea that televisions have a conscience. The speaker explains how television reflects the moral, political, social, and emotional need our nation. Zalaznick gets into the topic of evolution in order to show how human beings are separated from the animal kingdom simply because we love to be entertained.

    Read More

  • Spike Lee Film Analysis

    1948 Words  | 4 Pages

    African American representation in the film industry has always been a topic for discussion. Whether talking about character types and roles, the actors being cast or not cast, and the lack of diversity in front of and behind the camera. ‘The contemporary status of race in mainstream American culture is intimately bound to the process of representation within and through the mass media.’ (Rocchio, 2000, p. 4). Any role that was to be played by an African American kept in with the dominant stereotypes of the time of production; incompetent, child like, hyper-sexualised or criminal.

    Read More

  • A Rhetorical Analysis Of Hannah Paquette's Speech

    637 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 2016, Hannah Paquette wrote and delivered a speech that was meant for a convention for women's rights after the passing of the 19th amendment. She did this to not only celebrate the occasion and the potential for the future, but also as a way to call attention to the hardship that women had to endure in the pursuit of suffrage. Throughout the speech, Paquette uses rich emotional appeals to make herself relatable while also including a great depth of information to establish herself as a trustworthy speaker.

    Read More

  • White Chicks: Film Analysis

    1681 Words  | 4 Pages

    In today’s society, pre-existing assumptions and stereotypes of other ethnicities and individuals play a large part in the way we see others. This social construct of stereotypes has placed restrictions on many people’s lives which ultimately limits them from achieving certain goals. In this sense, stereotypes misrepresent and restrict people of colour to gain casting within the Hollywood film industry. The issue of how casting actors to certain roles and how these actors are forced to submit and represent these false stereotypes is one worthy of discussion. White Chicks (2004), directed by Keenan Wayans, illustrates this issue through the performance of Latrell, performed by Terry Crews, and his performance of the hyper-sexualised “buck” will be a prime example in this essay to discuss the racial politics and stereotypes in Hollywood casting.

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Diversity In Hollywood

    791 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to the article “African American Representation In Hollywood”, the first person of color to win an Oscar was Hattie McDaniel in 1940 for Best Supporting Role, however it took 61 years later for another woman of color to receive an Oscar and in 2001 Halle Berry took home an Oscar for Best Actress in a Lead Role in ‘Monster 's Ball’ and the same night Denzel Washington also went home with a Best Lead Actor award in ‘Training Day’. Though many more people were nominated, less than a handful of minorities walked away with an award throughout the years. We wonder why, but according to the “2016 Hollywood Diversity Report”, studies show that “minorities accounted for 37.9 percent of the U.S Population in 2014, yet they were underrepresented by nearly 3 to 1 among lead roles for that year.” (p.10

    Read More

  • A Rhetorical Analysis Of Ellen Degeneres

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    At one point Ellen DeGeneres got kicked off of a talk show, but it wasn’t for her performance, it was because she came out as lesbian and the talk show did not accept that. But instead of giving up, Ellen decided to take her career in her own hands by doing that she raised to fame years later. But how did she come from being at rock bottom to an inspiration to so many? It was a journey but in order to inspire, Ellen persuaded the audience to stay true to themselves by using pathos and ethos.

    Read More

  • Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes In Guess Who's Coming To Dinner '

    446 Words  | 1 Pages

    Hollywood films have dealt with the issue of racial inequality while reinforcing gender stereotypes about female subordination. This week we watch three movies, some of female characters speak up for their rights. Some of them were deference to men's power. “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” is a movie talk about the relationship shared between a white woman and a black man. Debate over whether or not the Draytons’ will approve of their daughter’s marriage is at the heart of the movie.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Black Women In The Media

    1599 Words  | 4 Pages

    The lack of diversity inclusion in the media and entertainment has become a major discussion in popular culture over recent years, specifically with the rise of trends such as #OscarsSoWhite. Although Hollywood has come a long way from the days of minstrel shows and having white actors use blackface to portray characters of color, it still has far to go before present-day media becomes truly representative of the diversity of America and the rest of the world we live in. For many years, actors of colors have struggled to find roles in Hollywood that were multidimensional, challenging, and impactful in the overall piece that they are performing in. Black women specifically are often confined to stereotypes such as the hypersexual jezebel,

    Read More

  • Hollywood 's Diversity Problem : Film And New Media

    950 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hollywood’s diversity problem is well-known; however, the extent might be surprising to most Americans. According to a 2014 report by the Center for the Study of Women in Television, Film & New Media, found that females comprised only 30% of all speaking characters among the top grossing films of 2013. (Lauzen, 2014) However, minority women faired far worse than their Caucasian counterparts. As a matter of fact, if one looks at the numbers even female characters from other world’s were as better represented in film than some minority women; the numbers are as follow for women: Caucasian (73%), African American (14%), Latina (5%), Asian and other world tied (3%). (Lauzen, 2014) If the lack of representation were not enough consider a 2009 study which found that when minority groups are portrayed on television the portrayal tends to be negative. (Alexandrin, 2009) A study by Busselle and Crandall (2009) found that the manner in which African-Americans are portrayed, often as unemployed criminals, tends to have an influence on the way the public perceives African-American’s lack of economic success. Furthermore, the news media does an equally poor job in the ways that African-American’s are presented; according to the same study while 27% of Americans were considered “poor” in 1996 the images of America’s “poor” being presented by news media was heavily Black (63%). (Busselle & Crandall, 2002) Today, this can be seen in the way that African-American victims of police brutality are depicted in the media. Even when African-Americans are murdered at the hands of police for minor and non-violent offenses (e.g. Mike Brown, Eric Gardner, and Tamir Rice) they are often portrayed as thugs, criminals, and vandals. What’s more, seve...

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Essay On Hillary Clinton

    969 Words  | 2 Pages

    I chose to do my Speech Analysis Essay on Hillary Clinton’s Official Campaign Launch video. Hillary Clinton did a nice job of including a rhetorical methods. She was speaking in New York to her supporters. There was proprobaly more than 500 people in the audience, in Four Freedoms Park in Roosevelt Island, New York City, where the speech was held. The type of speech Hillary Clinton was conducting was a persuasive speech.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Movie ' War Room '

    1042 Words  | 3 Pages

    Those who deny the existence of the racism rooted into modern day Hollywood are far from reality. They may think that in the United States we are getting closer to equality when it comes to casting but we in fact are not. While there is the belief that America has progressed when it comes to social issues, the percentage of roles held by black actors in film and TV has dropped from 15 to 13 percent from the early 2000’s to 2011 (McClintock and Apello 2).

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Margaret Thatcher's Speech

    671 Words  | 2 Pages

    On June 11, 2004, the former prime minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher delivered a eulogy in honor of former president Ronald Reagan, she declares Reagan as a great man and president. Thatcher develops her ideas by analyzing all he has done using parallelism, repetition, and ethos. Using Reagan’s accomplishments and personal experiences, she amplifies how great of a man he was in order to make the nation comprehend what Reagan did. Thatcher opens her eulogy with “We have lost a great president,” indicating that the speech she gives with apologetic and heartfelt tone is not only to the American people, but to everyone else.

    Read More

  • A Rhetorical Analysis Essay On Oprah Winfrey

    814 Words  | 2 Pages

    In today’s society “failure” is dreaded by most people. In 2013 Oprah Winfrey deliver “The Harvard Commencement Speech” and in 2008 she spoke “The Stanford Commencement Speech,” which both spoke about overcoming failure. Throughout these speeches, the audience learns that failure is something everyone will experience. Winfrey teaches readers that failure may hurt, but failure helps everyone learn from their mistakes and allows them to become a better person. Winfrey tells readers about a time when she failed and instead of feeling sorry for herself, she allowed herself to exceed expectations and change her failure into something spectacular. Oprah Winfrey is an effective speaker because she uses rhetorical devices and

    Read More

  • Racism In Popular Culture

    1346 Words  | 3 Pages

    Seitz argues that M.Ns are happy to help their masters at any time. African-Americans are serving whites to succeed in their life and these mentors willingly serve whites. Seitz states, “Magical Negro”: a saintly African-American who acts as a mentor to a white hero… [their] relationship is that of a master and servant… one that truly lives to serve, has no life to speak beyond his service” (Seitz 357). Years after the end of slavery, blacks are still considered as servants of whites in America. Even though social reforms have ended slavery and the exclusion of blacks from society, whites still consider blacks as their slaves and this has been portrayed ambiguously in many movies. In pro-white popular culture, African-American actors and actresses have not received fair treatment to perform at the highest of their abilities. In today’s modern world, there are roots of racism; popular culture and mass media production are very important key factors in promoting the racial distinction in our society. In this modern world, media and television are a part of everyday life. People have easy access to movies and TV shows; viewers of these shows tend to believe what is being shown. Films and TV shows have played a significant role in reestablishing racism and discrimination in popular culture. Many of the mass media production industries have characterized racial stereotypes. Omi reveals racial stereotypes, “[in

    Read More

More about A Rhetorical Analysis Of Oprah Winfrey's Speech

Open Document