Symbolic Interactionist Perspective Media Analysis Essay Example

Oprah Winfrey is a TV presenter, who is famous for being quite elaborating in the discussion of themes related to social inequality and racism in the United States. Her contribution is huge because her talk-show was one of the first serious TV-series, where the problems of African American were properly addressed. Oprah is a charismatic person. Perhaps, it is the reason why the format of the series in a talk shows. People come and discuss their problems and create polemics, which helps to figure out the roots of the problems discussed in the studio. Currently, the show is more about celebrities because it gains more and more success with multicultural audience and becomes more commercial than it used to be before. It is the reason why old series are better for the analysis as they create a good data for symbolic interactionalist analysis. This paper will be based on one episode of the show created in 1992 and called “Racism in 1992". This episode dwells on the discussion of issues related to oppression of racial minorities in America in the end of 20th century. People come to the studio and share their experience of being oppressed. In the course of discussion, all people use non-verbal communication to prove their opinions or express their emotions. In this episode, Oprah and invited guest Jane Elliot, who is an active fighter for human rights and equality, state that the problems of Racism in the United States is not just the problem of accepting skin colors. They say that racism is more about culture and human values, which rule American society from the inside. The whole show is based on the discussions, therefore any part of the show can be analyzed. However, the video is rather long, so only first 5 minutes of the video will be analyzed. Firstly, program starts with a short collage of different videos. There people can spot martin Luther King pronouncing his speech, the police officers beating African American people and other photos and videos,