Oprah Winfrey Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Oprah Winfrey Life - Essay Example All the ventures that she started achieved a great measure of success. After 25 years of hosting the immensely successful show known as The Oprah Winfrey Show (TOWS) Oprah made the drastic decision to end the show. She also indicated that she has the intention to start up her very on television network to be known as Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Considering that TOWS which is what most people identify with Oprah will no longer be produced, the question becomes whether Oprah’s network OWN can achieve the same success that TOWS achieved or Oprah is overstretching her ability and brand power (http://www.oprah.com/pressroom/Oprah-Winfreys-Official-Biography ) . TOWS was broadcast over the 25 year period and it grew to be one of the most watched television shows. The show had an estimated viewership of 42 million weekly viewers in the US. It was also broadcast in around 145 different countries. The popularity of the show was credited to the confessional approach that the show had. It provided a forum for people to share their story and was used as a platform to empower people to live better and healthier lives. The book club that Oprah formed as a segment of TOWS served to encourage people to adopt a reading culture. Most of the books selected for this role achieved the best seller status. Other brands that were endorsed by Oprah also became immensely successful. The success of the Oprah brand was also extended to the online version or website for TOWS, which is Oprah.com, and to the O magazine. Oprah’s media ventures also included satellite radio when through a deal with XM satellite radio she started the channel Oprah and friends, and later renamed the channel Oprah radio. Aside from her contribution to the media, Oprah is also a philanthropist. She has regularly contributed to causes that are aimed at making education accessible for the disadvantaged in different communities. Her contribution to education also includes starting The Oprah Winfrey Aca demy for Girls, which is aimed at empowering young disadvantaged girls in South Africa. The academy seeks to empower them to achieve their dreams and ambitions and also develop women in South Africa for leadership positions (http://www.oprah.com/pressroom/Oprah-Winfreys-Official-Biography). The different brands that Oprah managed to create and grow to a success are often associated with her personality and her face. This makes it easier for people to identify with the brand and has led to what is considered ‘the Oprah effect’. Her personality has been recognized based on her ability to be honest about different issues that have affected her as well as those that affect people all over the world. She is therefore considered as one of the most powerful opinion leaders and shapers in the world. Celebrity branding has been unsuccessful in several instances. There is therefore the concern that the new venture (OWN) by Oprah may fail following an overuse or overexposure of Op rah as a brand. Celebrity branding has gone wrong such as in the case of Martha Stewart who was once a powerful brand in several instances. Following credibility issues that were brought about by her arrest and jailing, the brand Martha Stewart became one that nobody wanted to have any kind of association with. Despite many attempts to revive the brand, people continued to avoid it and anything that was thought to have any form of

Scripture Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Scripture - Assignment Example The section ends with a detailed development of three topics from the Dei Verbum. How did the Church settle on the 27 books of the New Testament? The early Church was prompted to come up with the 27 books of the New Testament by a number of factors. These factors were of, religious, socio-political, or cultural nature. A combination of these factors compelled the early Church leaders, as it were, to come up with the list of authentic and authoritative books in the New Testament. These factors are: Gnosticism: This was a sect of heretical believers who posed a great challenge to the early Christians on the teachings of the church. The central view of the Gnostic scholars was that, the elect souls are divine sparks temporarily imprisoned in the physical bodies as a result of precosmic catastrophe, and as such, these souls have a natural knowledge (gnosis) of their origin and destiny, and this natural knowledge will lead them to salvation. As it can be deduced from this position, for th e Gnostics, there was absolutely no need of an authoritative body of knowledge or traditions that would serve as a condition for salvation. Some of the Gnostic scholars were, Basilides, Carpocrates, and Valentinus and Marcion. The early Christians, therefore, had to come up with an authoritative body of knowledge that contained the teachings of their founder, JesusChrist, and the apostles, that would serve as a guide for their followers and that would enlighten the Christians against the heresies and the fallacies of the Gnostics. Montanism was another heretical religious sect that prompted the formation of the New Testament in the early centuries of Christianity. This Christian movement was a charismatic movement that claimed to be a religion of the Holy Spirit, and it was marked by ecstatic outbursts. This sect claimed that this kind of ecstatic outbursts was the only true form of Christianity. To counter this heretical movement and its teachings, the early church came had to come up with correct teachings of the Church which would act as a guide for its adherents. This led to the formation of the 27 books in the New Testament. Apart from the heretical teachings that precipitated the need for the formulation of the authoritative teachings of the Church, another phenomenon in form of persecution of Christians, further, necessitated the need for the articulation of the authoritative teachings of the Church based on the teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles. When the imperial police started persecuting the Christians and demanding from the the teachings of Christianity, it became necessary for the Christians of the early Church to determine the correct teachings of Christianity, from a myriad of other teachings that claimed to be the true teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles. This circumstance, therefore, led to the formation of the 27 books of the New Testament that constitute the authoritative teachings of the Church. Settling on the 27 books in th e New Testament Having been influenced by the above factors, the early Church set out to assemble the Christian books that contained the authentic teachings of Christianity. And to distinguish between the authentic and the inauthentic Christian books, the Church employed four guidelines (How the New Testament Canon was Formed, online). These guidelines