The Oprah Effect

Oprah Winfrey is often referred to as the most influential woman on television.

Throughout her 20 years on prime time, Oprah has never been openly affiliated with a political party, nonetheless endorsed a Presidential candidate. When it came to politics, Winfrey always wanted to stay neutral in order to preserve her fan base.

Well, that’s not until Barack Obama came into the picture.

Winfrey declared her support for the Illinois senator during an interview on CNN’s Larry King Live. On one of the largest television platforms, Oprah, for the first time, endorsed a presidential candidate.

When King asked why the change in pace, Oprah said it’s because she, for years, has been a close friend to Mr. Obama.

“I know him personally. I think that what he stands for, what he has proven that he can stand for, what he has shown was worth me going out on a limb for – and I haven’t done it in the past because I haven’t felt that anybody, I didn’t know anybody well enough to be able to say, I believe in this person.”

Even though Winfrey has not written a check to the democratic candidate, she says her value and support to him is worth more than any money. She did, however, host a star-studded fundraiser on her California estate; an event estimated to have raised $3 million for Obama’s campaign.

Political analysts have predicted the talk show host's effect on the upcoming election. Three years ago, Winfrey picked the unknown Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” as a monthly book club selection. Within days, the novel shot to the top of the best-seller list. Dubbed the “Oprah effect”, this impact has been said to influence the election’s end result.

Tim Moore and Craig Garthwaite, economic grad students at University of Maryland, conducted a study aimed at exploring the “Oprah effect”. They analyzed Oprah’s ability to influence consumers through subscriptions of her magazine and sales from her book club. The results estimated that her support of Barack Obama resulted in one million votes in the Democratic presidential primaries this year.

"I think that, in general, the academic community has an unclear view of how endorsements affect politics,” says Garthwaite. “Even after controlling factors such as race and gender, we still found a relationship between Oprah's magazine circulation and Barack Obama's share of the votes.”

In a CBS poll, 23 percent of respondents said they would be more likely to vote for Obama because of Winfrey's support, while just 13 percent said they'd be less likely to vote for him.

Samantha Marshall, a junior marketing major at Quinnipiac University and devoted fan of The Oprah Winfrey Show agrees with the recent findings.

“Oprah’s appeal carries over to multiple age ranges and demographics,” says Marshall. "Especially on female voters, I strongly believe that Winfrey has the power to manipulate the campaign’s outcome.”

Will the infamous “Oprah effect” change the course of this historic election? The votes will definitely speak in November.



http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/11/oprahs_endorsement_can_keep_ob.html

http://media.www.diamondbackonline.com/media/storage/paper873/news/2008/08/14/News/Students.Find.Out.Oprah.Endorsement.Earned.Obama.Votes-3398701.shtml

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/oprah-endorses-obama-2/