I will use Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological concept of the cultural capital to analyze the Oprah Winfrey show. I will start with defining the cultural capital concept from the sociological perspective of Pierre Bourdieu. Cultural Capital is the state of possessing both tangible and intangible assets enhance an individual’s social mobility (Ollivier 2008, 267). Examples of these assets include skills, passion, fortitude and determination in one’s belief, a dream of vision. Cultural capital elements do not relate to a person’s financial measure. Cultural capital can be categorized into institutionalized skills, which might be a person’s education or knowledge, embodied traits, which might be personality, speech, skills and objectified elements, which might be a preference or personal belongings (Bourdieu 1980, 227). Habitus is another important sociological aspect defined as a system of personified dispositions that show how individuals perceive and react to the social world.
The Oprah Winfrey show, starring Oprah Winfrey is one of the most celebrated shows in the American industry. Oprah is one of the most successful women in America, whose early childhood gives a contrary story. Oprah came from a low-income family, where her cultural capital elements helped her climb the success ladder to do a very successful celebrated successful show. As she was starting the show in 1986, she was one of the first black American women to ever start a Television show. There were various challenges that Oprah and her team faced in the preliminary years. Cultural capital elements in her and her team helped her to stay in the in the TV show, augment the subsequent sessions and help the show have tremendous fan-base until the end of the show in mid-2011. Oprah Winfrey show existed two and half decades, which gave the show subsequent growth and good performance. The Oprah Winfrey show had tremendous success based on aspects of cultural capital and habitus as defined by Pierre Bourdieu.
List of References
Ollivier, M. (2008) Revisiting Distinction, Journal of Cultural Economy, 1:3, 263-279, DOI: 10.1080/17530350802476970
Bourdieu, P. (1980). The Aristocracy of Culture, 1980. Translation by Richard Nice. Media, Culture and Society. 225-254
