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Final

Bry’on Henry English 1302 Professor Bobbitt Spring 2015 Oprah Winfrey: The Impact on a Community

Ethnography Fandom Research: Oprah Winfrey Why research the fandom of Oprah? Being an unbiased researcher, my overall perspectives of Oprah Winfrey are automatically viewed as a powerful, wise and a respected woman when concluding.  Although Oprah Winfrey is a person, she is associated with a fandom just due to her life and successful goals she has accomplished and having a helping hand to many people. Oprah Winfrey can be defined as a successful actress, TV hostess, producer, author, entrepreneur, business woman plus more and with these occupations combined it is safe to call her a “peoples person”. Oprah Winfrey is the definition of an entrepreneur simply because she rose to the top through knowledge and faith; and on top I mean of the 1600+ billionaires in the world Oprah is one out of the nine blacks on the list. I believe viewers witnessing someone that came from poverty to receiving an overload of fame and success is how Oprah has so much influence over her viewers and fans.  The way Oprah interacts with her peers and followers greatly shows the literacy practices in her life and those are what make this woman a leader. Although I am not a participant in the Oprah Winfrey fandom, I believe I chose this for the listed above influencing reasons.  Furthermore, I can say I am connected to Oprah through race and gender. Race and gender plays a role in society in fact those characteristics can affect someone future. Oprah is African-American and 60 years of age and in her childhood the environment she was surrounded by consisted of low class economy and troubling struggles between poverty and receiving true care liberty rights. A black woman of that time typically had a harder lifestyle to live than a white man or woman. Therefore, as a young black woman I admire the achieved goals and strengths of Oprah Winfrey. I made my decision based off of these factors to study the fans of Oprah Winfrey. In my study I present a research and resulting data of literacy practices from a variety of interacting fans amongst each other and expressions shared through common Oprah Winfrey sites and social media including Tumblr and Twitter. The fandom of Oprah Winfrey is composed of a variety of literacy practices and those are distinguished within different discourse communities present online via social networks. This means during my observation I detected to find a life-span of education, morals and relationships with society and differentiate each of those amongst the cultures connected to Oprah Winfrey. Using the internet, a few questions were reached out to fandom communities like: twitter, peers of Oprah on her personal website and individual fans on tumblr and other blog sites, for additional information in this research. In order to accumulate an accurate research on literacy practices I had to get a clear understanding on the aspects of literacy. Being raised in an environment that consisted of opportunities on having great education really helped me understand the academic aspects of literacy. In elementary school we were taught the basics of English or “Language arts” as they called it and literacy was instructed in those courses; even now in this college English class I am still being trained on the same material just in a deeper element. Our elementary teachers never taught us the reasons why we were learning to write, they’re only concern was teaching us the basics, which included copying the letters in the book, learning our vowels, and pronouncing words. When I met my eighth grade teacher Mrs. Languish I could honestly say I began to embrace what English was all about and perhaps had to offer for my knowledge. I comprehended the messages the authors were trying to convey to their readers. I was amazed how authors took the time out to not just write something on the paper literally, but write things on the paper and make the reader have to think about what they were trying to get us to understand. Mrs. languish always made it a point to explain what was being read and how to analyze the selection for what it was implying. Now high school on the other hand was a challenge, what I had previously called easy was more advanced than I had anticipated. Part of it was our very advanced school district: Rockwall ISD, they had just renewed the English curriculum to prepare their students for college when I was a freshman, so my freshmen class were the guinea pigs to this new curriculum. Some literacy practices in individual lives of one culture can be different from another due to their environment and surroundings because these components can affect receiving equal opportunities for public education. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to be taught at an excellent school district like Rockwall ISD, and I’ve came to the conclusion that all of the hard work was necessary for me to advance and become a better student. All of those literacy practices that I was demanded to have knowledge of benefitted me in a deeper way than just education. It was motivation, being pushed and having real instructions on doing proper analyzing and writing and also being taught certain mechanisms to have a successful future. Those literacy events are what constructed my mind into the state it is in today. The cultural fundamentals that I chose to research for this selected fandom is of socioeconomic and psychological perspectives with a gaging focus on women. Childhood, economic classification, education and mental ethics of woman were the literacy practices I studied amongst Oprah Winfrey fans. In my research these details are combined and compared to how literacy can, have and will forever cause effects on life. The childhood of someone is used to establish a foundation of an individual in regard to personality and morals/ethics. In the stage of childhood the child is being taught their basic rules and routines of life and the outcome of future decisions may be based upon past experiences. For example, a child of wealth is most likely in a great environment which means there are serious concerns for guiding them in having precise education, knowledge of participating in business, professionalism, social media, dealing with different societies and etc. Furthermore there are many children in a situation in which the students are not receiving proper education due to poverty. An underprivileged academic school comes from the lack of funds from state government and lack of knowledge is one main cause of negative effects on those particular children’s future. Education is the center of importance regardless of any occupation or journey a person proceeds, they must learn something and live by it. Also, educationalists of all levels have the ability to shape and define an individual. For instance the high school I attended focused on reading all types of literature and those practices gave me the ability to analyze any reading and comprehend the message that author is attempting to convey. This type of curriculum was forced throughout my education and I believe have structured me to be the understanding person I am today in regard to people of different literacies. As life goes by you come into contact with a lot of discourse communities and experiencing a variety of cultures allowed me to realize everyone are not assembled the same. Some may not have ever had an opportunity to be permanently raised and guided by parents/guardians.  That factor alone can cause a defect or enhance an individual’s literalism and personality, but that does not make one better than another. Oprah Winfrey has a personality that many people love and are inspired by because it is popularly known that she came from a poor economic class and through it all she conquered, however this proves that even with disadvantages in one’s childhood they can still succeed. Literacy events can never be seen they are just understood when it is happening. At any moment, your life can change which means in any instant you could find yourself walking down a different path than you started down. People never recognize the simplest and different forms of literacy are always being used through communication whether it is making a grocery list, composing an email, tweeting, blogging or simply doing your homework and this occurs in everyday lives which keeps the world evolving.   In this research I found physical data pertaining to Oprah Winfrey and each of them are expressed differently by individual fans. These collected visuals were for me to see and experience literacy practices and analyze the importance of Oprah in personal lives and finally gain ideas regarding questions for my survey. Also, each of these components of literacy practice will be concluded from individual woman to establish similarities and differences amongst all subjects. My subjects are strictly women of all ethnicities, ages, class and levels of education on Tumblr and Twitter sites/pages. They are current fans of Oprah Winfrey and involved/interacting participants on social media websites. These women are strongly inspired, gain strength esteem and find it beneficial to be a follower of the literacy practices in the legacy or life of O.W. The data collected is composed of: insider language, popular words or phrases and online performances.  All events from the past, present and future in regard to Oprah Winfrey is most likely shared via Twitter by herself and fans all over the world. Her legendary quotes and advise is spread to all kinds of people regardless if they are or aren’t fans of Oprah.

Source: (http://singlemindedwomen.com/food-and-wine/oprahs-favorite-tequila/) In this photo Oprah Winfrey shared Tequila shots with Rosie O’Donnell with celebrations of Rosie’s reappearing show “The Rosie Show”.  As the article stated Oprah took these shots at 9am proving that she is a free spirit. Many women may have followed her trend of life (well those that believe in drinking) and bought the same tequila to sip on. This article was published on a woman empowering website (under the food/wine tab) called singlemindedwomen.com and it was linked/shared through a tweet on twitter by an Oprah Winfrey female fan.  

Source: http://hellobeautiful.com/2013/11/04/winning-oprah-raises-600000-for-her-south-african-school-in-massive-yard-sale/ Oprah hosted a yard sale that contained many of her belongings like art, antiques and furniture and each item was auctioned off for charity benefits. All profit made which came out to be $600,000 went towards her South African school. Fans spent outrageous amounts for her simplest around-the-house items, for example her old teapot went for $1,000. During this garage sell O admitted to having a feeling of relief by telling Entertainment Tonight ““It’s just too much stuff. I talk about it a lot in the magazine. We talk about decluttering. And I realized, I need to declutter my own life. It is very freeing. I am downsizing.” I believe this event is a lesson to many people because Oprah shows kindness of course and also she proves she is a smart woman by helping without coming out of pocket and being a blessing to all of those kids that attend her South African school.

Source: https://twitter.com/KilwinsChicago This screen-shot photo of a tweet on Twitter from a very loyal Oprah Winfrey fan shows how inspirational Oprah really is. The lives of women are being either positively altered or uplifting through the great acts and advise from the richest black woman in America. This tweet allow people to learn that even with money you can be humble and have a giving soul because life truly-deeply does not revolve around money, interpreting love is what keeps life going. Reading this tweet is like looking at a picture of love.

Source: https://twitter.com/Oprah This photo was shared by Oprah Winfrey via Twitter to inform her fans and promote her tour and the quote thoroughly explains what it will be about. The life you want weekend is provided by Oprah Winfrey through a tour to 8 cities for a 2-day weekend. During this intervention she will discuss about making or finding a purpose for your life.  Many people live day by day to survive or have become accustomed to their daily lives and do not realize that they have no real mission for their life. The real question that O wants to ask to every follower/fan is “When you close your eyes and envision the life you want, what does it look like?” The great thing about Oprah (which is why she is so respected) is that even without being a fellow fan she can still influence anyone that just sits down and listens to her wisdom.  Those different women that have taken this into consideration will be studied then surveyed and I will collect resulting data on this exact question that Oprah has proposed.

Source: https://twitter.com/kiki_king This fan art was created by a fan and shared through Twitter and the photo was a part of an art collection name Covered in Love: Adorned With my Heart. This particular woman is apparently inspired by Oprah Winfrey and the drawing shows exactly how she feels about the legend O. Whinfrey. This is important for the research of my fandom because it shows how deep Oprah can motivate women. The methods of researching online can be as complex and diverse in comparison to in a class room. Regardless if the research is to be done through physical action or online interactions it will always be necessary to be responsible by protecting the research. This can be done by forming code of ethics and an informed consent forms. “This means that research participants are made aware of your research plans (Adkins, 120).” By doing this, permission is given to the researcher and all findings and data will be professionally used in the final product. Every person, religion, place or thing consist of rules that will guide them through life or any situation and research is one factor that involves principles to follow in order to be successful. The study of literacy practices inside cultures that follows Oprah Winfrey’s fandom requires definite rules of ethics during the research practices. This is simply because when doing research on a particular person that has many fans of different views, those must be protected and used under responsible acts of research studies rather physically or online.   Ethical research principles involving the online fandom of Oprah Winfrey There are three codes of ethics I will follow during this online based study and those include: expressions of respect, safety and principles of professional performance through unbiased observation. 1. Respect. Modern day social media consist of personal practices of life that is being published by people all over the world via web. What this means. When people tweet, blog, upload pictures or interact any on a social media site each and every person is allowing a product of information that was once personal to surface onto that specific online community. Once that is done people have a choice to respect or disrespect an individuals’ online sharing. In regard to this form of ethical practice, I pledge to not disrespect any interviewee or subjects’ opinions and social life by criticizing, or subject anyone to public ridicule. Denying an individual the freedom to act on their own judgments gives indication to lack of respect (Douglas, 126). Although freedom of speech is listed in the U.S. Constitution, I am not free to speak on collected data that is not approved of.   2. Safety. It is crazy to think that safety is a principle to act on when doing online research but anytime strangers are approaching one another and confidential information is being shared there must be rules of handling that with safety. One concept of safety within this literacy practice study really alters protection for the person participating. Legal action will take place while conducting online research via two lawful practices; (1) Research will not be done on individuals under the age of 18 (2) Information will not be used without providing an Informed Consent form. Also the interviewee identification will remain anonymous when stating the results of that particular observation in the final project. Oprah Winfrey is a passionate person with even more passionate fans which means a follower of one community can be offended by the listed participant and seeks to attack that subject. Therefore, to prevent like-such events ethics of safety must be present. 3. Professional Performance via Unbiased Observation. An experimental procedure calls for professional control especially when performing online. Professional principles include: (1) Managing required confidential information and data with consent to share. (2) Avoiding unrelated questions and conversation to stay an unbiased researcher. Even without being a fan of Oprah Winfrey I have my own thoughts of her and personal perspectives are not considered in this professional aspect of online study. In order to protect participants of the survey in this research these general ethics are necessary to apply with each individual. This survey includes 5 questions that allow me to accumulate and connect information. 1. In what type of community do you live? City or urban community Suburban community Substandard (low/poor) community Other (please specify)   2. Are you a current fan of Oprah Winfrey? Yes No In between with interest 3. Do you believe having too much wealth can change a person? Yes, Definitely. No, Money do not make differences in personality Maybe, Depends on the person 4. Does Oprah's insignificant childhood make her "strong"? Yes No Childhood does not affect future characteristics 5. Would you say Oprah Winfrey's success is impossible for most women? Most likely impossible Very possible Depends on the person/woman 6. Do you have any other comments, questions, or concerns?

Although I was not able to get results from these questions I strongly believe that answering this survey would allow me to gather and differentiate literacy amongst cultures. Some questions are made biased to accurately classify a specific type of subject and this is important when recognizing literacy practices within someone. It was surprising to learn the ways in which a student of an English course can do real research online. However research is really the process of gathering information about anything a person finds interesting. Studying the fandom of Oprah Winfrey and opening up my mind to literacy gave me the power to know when a literacy event occurs and it has given me the ability to connect and compare variety literacy practices of all cultures. Annotated Bibliography Cooper, J. David, and Kathryn H. Au. Literacy : Helping Children Construct Meaning / J. David Cooper ; With An Introduction By Kathryn H. Au. n.p.: Boston, Mass. : Houghton Mifflin, c2000., 2000. LION Catalog. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. The title of this article is “Literacy : Helping Children Construct Meaning” and it is about the very basics of literacy that every child learns in grade school. I talked about the literacy that I grew up learning in my childhood and this book is structured to teach those very same elements to children. The practices in this book are teachings of reading and understanding which is what I call learning how to analyze. Gray, Jonathan, Cornel Sandvoss, and C. Lee Harrington. Fandom : Identities And Communities In A Mediated World / Edited By Jonathan Gray, Cornel Sandvoss, And C. Lee Harrington ; With An Afterword By Henry Jenkins. n.p.: New York : New York University Press, c2007., 2007. LION Catalog. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. The title of this article is “Fandom : identities and communities in a mediated world” and it is about the study of fans in regard to the differences amongst their identities and communities that guides them to be a part of a chosen fandom.   it is related to my research because it tells how to recognize literary elements between  fans. O'CONNOR, CLARE. "The Education Of Oprah Winfrey." Forbes 190.6 (2012): 58-68. Business Source Complete. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. It’s about the planning and building of the school, and the sex-abuse scandal that occurred in its first year. It discusses lessons she says she learned from that episode and other problems the school has encountered, including the importance of building relationships with the surrounding community.

Works Cited https://twitter.com/search?q=fans%20of%20oprah%20winfrey&src=typd http://www.oprah.com/app/the-life-i-want-weekend.html http://singlemindedwomen.com/food-and-wine/oprahs-favorite-tequila/ https://twitter.com/kiki_king http://hellobeautiful.com/2013/11/04/winning-oprah-raises-600000-for-her-south-african-school in-massive-yard-sale/ https://twitter.com/KilwinsChicago

[bryhenry-blog-blog]

WA4

Bry’on Henry English 1302 Professor Bobbitt 3 April 2015 Photo Essay: Online Fandom of Oprah Whinfrey I am a black 20-year old female from a middle class family and originally resided from Dallas, Texas. I spent my childhood in that area then moved to the city of Rockwall and lived there ever since the time came to graduate from Rockwall-Heath High School and go to a secondary level which I am presently attending at Texas A&M University – Commerce. My parents grew up in a low/middle class however after childhood times majority of my life has been spent in a suburban area so I have witnessed a variety of morals/values, cultural and educational practices throughout my life. This may explain my reason of researching the differentiating literacy practices of fans via internet over the fandom of Oprah Whinfrey. My subjects are strictly women of all ethnicities, ages, class and levels of education on Tumblr and Twitter sites/pages. They will be a current fan of Oprah Winfrey and must be an involved/interacting participant on social media websites. These women are strongly inspired, gain strength esteem and find it beneficial to be a follower of the literacy practices in the legacy or life of O.W. The data collected will have variants composed of: insider language, popular words or phrases and online performances. Each of these components of literacy practice will be concluded from individual woman to establish similarities and differences amongst all subjects.

Source: (http://singlemindedwomen.com/food-and-wine/oprahs-favorite-tequila/) In this photo Oprah Winfrey shared Tequila shots with Rosie O’Donnell with celebrations of Rosie’s reappearing show “The Rosie Show”.  As the article stated Oprah took these shots at 9am proving that she is a free spirit. Many women may have followed her trend of life (well those that believe in drinking) and bought the same tequila to sip on. This article was published on a woman empowering website (under the food/wine tab) called singlemindedwomen.com and it was linked/shared through a tweet on twitter by an Oprah Winfrey female fan.  

Source: http://hellobeautiful.com/2013/11/04/winning-oprah-raises-600000-for-her-south-african-school-in-massive-yard-sale/ Oprah hosted a yard sale that contained many of her belongings like art, antiques and furniture and each item was auctioned off for charity benefits. All profit made which came out to be $600,000 went towards her South African school. Fans spent outrageous amounts for her simplest around-the-house items, for example her old teapot went for $1,000. During this garage sell O admitted to having a feeling of relief by telling Entertainment Tonight ““It’s just too much stuff. I talk about it a lot in the magazine. We talk about decluttering. And I realized, I need to declutter my own life. It is very freeing. I am downsizing.” I believe this event is a lesson to many people because Oprah shows kindness of course and also she proves she is a smart woman by helping without coming out of pocket and being a blessing to all of those kids that attend her South African school.

Source: https://twitter.com/KilwinsChicago This screen-shot photo of a tweet on Twitter from a very loyal Oprah Winfrey fan shows how inspirational Oprah really is. The lives of women are being either positively altered or uplifting through the great acts and advise from the richest black woman in America. This tweet allow people to learn that even with money you can be humble and have a giving soul because life truly-deeply does not revolve around money, interpreting love is what keeps life going. Reading this tweet is like looking at a picture of love.

Source: https://twitter.com/Oprah This photo was shared by Oprah Winfrey via Twitter to inform her fans and promote her tour and the quote thoroughly explains what it will be about. The life you want weekend is provided by Oprah Winfrey through a tour to 8 cities for a 2-day weekend. During this intervention she will discuss about making or finding a purpose for your life.  Many people live day by day to survive or have become accustomed to their daily lives and do not realize that they have no real mission for their life. The real question that O wants to ask to every follower/fan is “When you close your eyes and envision the life you want, what does it look like?” The great thing about Oprah (which is why she is so respected) is that even without being a fellow fan she can still influence anyone that just sits down and listens to her wisdom.  Those different women that have taken this into consideration will be studied then surveyed and I will collect resulting data on this exact question that Oprah has proposed.

Source: https://twitter.com/kiki_king This fan art was created by a fan and shared through Twitter and the photo was a part of an art collection name Covered in Love: Adorned With my Heart. This particular woman is apparently inspired by Oprah Winfrey and the drawing shows exactly how she feels about the legend O. Whinfrey. This is important for the research of my fandom because it shows how deep Oprah can motivate women. All events for the past, present and future in regard to Oprah Winfrey is mostly shared via Twitter by herself and fans all over the world. Her legendary quotes and advise is spread to all kinds of people regardless is they are or aren’t participants of O’s fandom. There are many women I can seek to do fieldwork upon over a variety of scenarios containing interactions and reactions via social media over the fandom of Oprah Winfrey.

Works Cited https://twitter.com/search?q=fans%20of%20oprah%20winfrey&src=typd http://www.oprah.com/app/the-life-i-want-weekend.html http://singlemindedwomen.com/food-and-wine/oprahs-favorite-tequila/ https://twitter.com/kiki_king http://hellobeautiful.com/2013/11/04/winning-oprah-raises-600000-for-her-south-african-school in-massive-yard-sale/ https://twitter.com/KilwinsChicago

[bryhenry-blog-blog]

WA3

Bry’on Henry English 1302 Professor Bobbitt April 3, 2015 Unit 3: Ethical Research Practice The methods of researching online can be as complex and diverse in comparison to in a class room. Regardless if the research is to be done through physical action or online interactions it will always be necessary to be responsible by protecting the research. This can be done by forming code of ethics and an informed consent forms. “This means that research participants are made aware of your research plans (Adkins, 120).” By doing this, permission is given to the researcher and all findings and data will be professionally used in the final product.   The fandom of Oprah Winfrey is composed of a variety of literacy practices and those are distinguished within different discourse communities present online via social networks. This means I will observe a life-span of education, morals and relationships with society and differentiate each of those amongst the cultures connected to Oprah Winfrey. Using the internet, a few questions will be reached out to fandom communities like: twitter, peers of Oprah on her personal website and individual fans on tumbler and other blog sites, for consideration in this research. Without proper research etiquette gathering this information will only be done with protection for any participants. Ethical research principles involving the online fandom of Oprah Winfrey There are three codes of ethics I will follow during this online based study and those include: expressions of respect, safety and principles of professional performance through unbiased observation. 1. Respect. Modern day social media consist of personal practices of life that is being published by people all over the world via web. What this means. When people tweet, blog, upload pictures or interact any on a social media site each and every person is allowing a product of information that was once personal to surface onto that specific online community. Once that is done people have a choice to respect or disrespect an individuals’ online sharing. In regard to this form of ethical practice, I pledge to not disrespect any interviewee or subjects’ opinions and social life by criticizing, or subject anyone to public ridicule. Denying an individual the freedom to act on their own judgments gives indication to lack of respect (Douglas, 126). Although freedom of speech is listed in the U.S. Constitution, I am not free to speak on collected data that is not approved of.   2. Safety. It is crazy to think that safety is a principle to act on when doing online research but anytime strangers are approaching one another and confidential information is being shared there must be rules of handling that with safety. One concept of safety within this literacy practice study really alters protection for the person participating. Legal action will take place while conducting online research via two lawful practices; (1) Research will not be done on individuals under the age of 18 (2) Information will not be used without providing an Informed Consent form. Also the interviewee identification will remain anonymous when stating the results of that particular observation in the final project. Oprah Winfrey is a passionate person with even more passionate fans which means a follower of one community can be offended by the listed participant and seeks to attack that subject. Therefore, to prevent like-such events ethics of safety must be present. 3. Professional Performance via Unbiased Observation. An experimental procedure calls for professional control especially when performing online. Professional principles include: (1) Managing required confidential information and data with consent to share. (2) Avoiding unrelated questions and conversation to stay an unbiased researcher. Even without being a fan of Oprah Winfrey I have my own thoughts of her and personal perspectives are not considered in this professional aspect of online study. Every person, religion, place or thing consist of rules that will guide them through life or any situation and research is one factor that involves principles to follow in order to be successful. The study of literacy practices inside cultures that follows Oprah Winfrey’s fandom requires definite rules of ethics during the research practices. This is simply because when doing research on a particular person that has many fans of different views, those must be protected and used under responsible acts of research studies rather physically or online.

Works Cited Adkins, Tabetha. “Ethnographic Inquires In Writing.” Chapter 3: Ethical Research. Ed. Tabetha   Adkins. 2010. Print. Douglas, lack D. “Living Morality versus Bureaucratic Fiat.” Deviance and Decency: The Ethics of Research with Human Subjects. Ed. Carl B. Klockars and Finbarr W. O’Connor. BeverlyHills: Sage, 1979. 13-33.

[bryhenry-blog-blog]

WA2

Bry’on Henry English 1302 Professor Bobbitt 4 March 2015 Oprah W. Oprah Winfrey has become successful in film acting, TV host and producer and writing and with these occupations combined it is safe to call her a “peoples person”. Oprah Winfrey is the definition of an entrepreneur simply because she rose to the top (if being a billionaire is not considered at the top then I don’t know what is) through knowledge and faith.  I believe viewers witnessing someone that came from poverty to receiving an overload of fame and success is how Oprah has so much influence over her viewers and fans.  The way Oprah has interacted with her peers and followers greatly shows the literacy practices in her life and that is what makes this woman a leader. I will study a proposal based on the fandom of Oprah Winfrey in regard to her verbal interaction, social rules, and relationships with fan communities and life expectations by analyzing passed episodes of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah’s Life Class that is shown on OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) and other sites that digs deeper into the life of Oprah. I will physically watch the Oprah Winfrey Show and Life Class show on OWN and follow up within my research on websites like www.oprah.com  and analyze the fandom of the well-known billionaire Oprah. For example, in Ethnographic Inquires in Writing it states, “They straddle the distinction between individual and social worlds, and literacy practices are more usefully understood as existing in the relations between people, within groups and communities, rather than as a set of properties residing individuals.” During the course of this research I will be guided by that specific quote when figuring Oprah’s fan culture. Oprah’s online website tells people what is the big things involved in her life which will allow me to see how her fans truly contribute to her literacy events. Although I am not a participant in the Oprah Winfrey fandom, I believe I have chosen this for many influencing reasons.  Furthermore, I can say I am connected to Oprah through race and gender. Race and gender plays a role in society in fact those characteristics can affect someone future. Oprah is African-American and 60 years of age which means in her childhood the environment she was surrounded by consisted of low class economy and troubling struggles between poverty and receiving true care/love. A black woman of that time typically had a harder lifestyle to live than a white man or woman. Therefore, as a young black woman I admire the achieved goals and strength of Oprah Winfrey. Wealth is another reason I picked Oprah Winfrey to study. I figured during my search I will learn some ways in how she established her financial stability. Even without being a current fan I can agree that Oprah is a person to learn new literacy practices from.  The Oprah Winfrey Life Class shows a variety of scenarios in people lives and Oprah speaks and connects with these people by sharing what she feels about the situation and applying help in the way she knows best. I believe those life class sessions alone will teach me new literacy practices that I have never thought of and ones that Oprah perceives to follow. Oprah and I are on different levels in regard to culture, finances, historical and environment. By analyzing each of those practices in Oprah’s life via her televised show and websites/social media, I am expecting to benefit from gaining knowledge. Being an unbiased researcher, my perspective of Oprah Winfrey seems to be more positive opinions than negative when concluding. As the fieldwork process goes on one must be open to personally connect, learn and establish an understanding between others that are involved in that specific research. That concept will be used throughout the research to help establish a deeper meaning and knowledge of the literacy practices of Oprah Winfrey.

[bryhenry-blog-blog]

WA1

Bry’on Henry English 1302W Professor Bobbitt February 17, 2015 What Defines Literacy- WA1 The concept of literacy is much larger than the natural definition “the ability to read and write” without doubt literacy can be compared and related within all diversities of people, places or things. For example, John F. Szwed stated, “And in the United States (especially since the 1960’s) illiteracy has been singled out as a root cause of poverty.” Literacy does not only refer to education, it has an influence on society and daily living activities and that is how it becomes a component of culture.  There are various ways to distinguish the levels of literacy within people you know in your community, strangers, and/or social media and each and every category of people has different methods of literacy.  In America’s system of testing peoples extent of literacies there are standardized test set up for each student. However in another perspective, “Indeed, one might hypothesis the existence of literacy-cycles, or individual variations in abilities and activities that are conditioned by one’s state and position in life” (Szwed, 1981). Therefore, one cannot decide what exactly is correct in regard to literacy practices. How I came to understand the meaning of literacy was while I was in school. When I met my eighth grade teacher Mrs. Gene I could honestly say I began to embrace what English was all about and all it had to offer. It wasn’t until I got in her class that I finally began to understand what I was reading and that made writing just as easy. The text made sense, “The words themselves were mostly foreign, but I still remember the exact moment when I first understood, with a sudden clarity, the purpose of a paragraph” (Alexie 41). I comprehended the messages the authors were trying to convey to their readers. I was amazed how authors took the time out to not just write something on the paper literally, but write things on the paper and make the reader have to think about what they were trying to get us to understand. Mrs. Gene always made it a point to explain what was being read and how to analyze the selection for what it was implying. Now high school on the other hand was a challenge, what I had previously called easy was more advanced than I had anticipated. Part of it was our very advanced school district: Rockwall isd, they had just renewed the English curriculum to prepare their students for college when I was a freshman, so my freshmen class were the guinea pigs to this new curriculum. The most relevant pieces of information I embedded in my brain were, analyzing a text, understanding the importance of a writer’s audience and the process of a successful research paper. Throughout my four years of high school this was always taught to be the most important subjects in English class. I have to agree with the district with this decision, it’s extremely important to be able to pick up a novel and find themes and literary elements crawling through a text. It’s also critical to know how to formally write a paper. So that’s what most of our time was spent doing throughout high school, we read amazing books and wrote. At the end of each year our essay would be assigned, the teachers would always let us choose our own topic, but they had to choose the style of writing we had to do. Which were between three types of writing: influential, informational, or persuasive writing. This time of the year is when I learned the most about writing formally. These research papers weren’t just some blow off assignment intentionally made to waste time, they were in fact time consuming thoughtful processes that involved the writer to take it step by step. All of those literacy practices that I was demanded to have knowledge of benefitted me in a deeper way than just education. It was motivation, being pushed and having real instructions on doing proper analyzing and writing and also being taught certain mechanisms to have a successful future. Those literacy events are what constructed my mind into the state it is in today. As the end of my middle school career came closer to an end I began to see a change not only in my reading and writing but my class as a whole. In the stage of childhood the child is being taught their basic rules and routines of life and the outcome of future decisions may be based upon past experiences. One kid can have the best environment with leaders (their parents or guardian) that have the least concern for guiding them in having good, appropriate literacies in education, business, professionalism, social media, dealing with different societies and etc. Education is the center of importance in having literacy events within a particular person.   As life goes by you come into contact with a lot of discourse communities and experiencing a variety of cultures allowed me to realize that not everybody is assembled the same. Some may not have ever had an opportunity to be permanently raised and guided by parents/guardians or influential teachers.  That factor alone can cause a defect or enhance an individual’s literalism, but that does not make one better than another. The causes of mental stability, environment surrounding and educational opportunity can affect literacy both positively and negatively.   Works Cited Alexie, Sherman. "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me." Problem Posing: Readings for Democratic Learning. Southlake , TX: Fountainhead, 2013. 41. Print. Szwed, John F. “The Ethnography of Literacy.” Writing: The Nature, Development, and Teaching of Written Communication. Ed. Marcia Farr Whiteman. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1981. 13-23. Print.

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Progress Blog 6

Finding artifacts is the current process I am in this research. Again! This research is over the literacy practices of fans in regard to the online fandom of Oprah. Many different people choose to express themselves in the way they feel or know how on social media and I am to search to find material objects shared amongst participating fans. Material objects are readable texts that can represent the culture of the specific field site you're studying. For example in my research these materials could be tickets for O.W. Talk show or a fan photo at an Oprah Winfrey event. Both can be used to reach further understanding of the relationships between fans and literacy. I have made major progress in the research because I am now completely aware of and open minded on literacy.

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Progress Blog 5

This is the middle of the semester and I am dreading each paper. However I do them and get them in on time because I know each essay is going to be needed for the end and final paper which is 15 pages! ! Okay now I know this is a blog so I can vent vent vent but I am done with my complaints. Quick question to self, "I wonder if my English instructor is actually reading these posts?" Hmm well any way if she is I believe I am still participating in the class and this is a part of my research. Good research causes for irritation and frustration and since again like I said this is the middle of my research those two terms describe my mood. As of now my study is still upon the fandom community of Oprah Winfrey.

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Progress blog 8

This semester is almost over and I can tell you it's been pretty stressful. Even though I'm only taking eleven hours the most difficult class is chemistry...not the regular chemistry but the crucial one. I know we aren't supposed to write about all of our classes but we are supposed to write about our feelings about this class..well I do have some concerns about the criteria. I can't seem to completely grasp the concept of the survey and interviews, so I won't be shocked if I don't do too well in this unit. Luckily my fandom is actually kind of interesting. This Oprah topic is really different than the other fandoms I've seen in my class. Oprah and her fans are truly inspirational. These women actually begin to see their true worth and inner beauty. These aren't just regular women, these are powerful, successful and legitimate women. It's weird how involved they become when dealing with mrs. Winfrey. I mean I guess it makes sense...surround yourself with people and things that you want to one day become or aspire to be. Maybe I should seriously follow or group that could possibly end up making me a better person or citizen. Oprah is the all time ultimate citizen

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Progress Blog 7

I am learning many new things on my own in this online course that I'm taking here at Texas a&m commerce. One major aspect researching online and that is getting permission from participating subjects, expressing to them your ethical guidelines for the research process and providing privacy with the use of an informed consent form it sounds like a lot and it is lol! But I did it and I believe for my first time instructed it pretty well. My guidelines that I will follow for proper research mechanisms include respect, safety and professional behavior under unlisted observation. The purpose of my ethical research principles are to show equality and make subjects comfortable to be a part of this study

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artifact 1:

I am reblogging this quote by Oprah, that is relevant to my fandom topic. This shows how Oprah's word are touching women everywhere. And I completely understand why, because this quote is uplifting and inspirational. She's telling you to focus hard on the things you love to do. That's what important in the end. And I must state that I've seen this quote surfing through the Internet a lot. A lot of Oprah fans love this quote because it makes them feel as if they can conquer the same goals as their influencer. It also gives the great advice of focusing on the important aspects of life.

Focus on what excites you!

#cocktailbandits #affirmation #success #passion #focus #oprahwinfrey #oprahquotes #oprah #entrepreneurship #repost #positivevibes (at www.cocktailbandits.com)

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Progress Blog 4

Unit 2 is finally coming to a close and I have to say this is the easiest section by far. The writing assignment for this unit was to simply explain what our fandom choice would be and how we would actively learn about this fandom. The assignment only had to be two to three pages long, so that's a breeze.

Oprah was the choice of my fandom because I honestly wanted to know why people are so infatuated by Oprah and all of her doings. I must say she is truly influential, I was watching one of her old shows and there was a lady crying about how much of an honor it was to meet her. This makes me completely interested because I wonder what in the world has this woman done and accomplished to be such an icon. I still have a lot of research to do.

Now about these tumblr blogs...I completely understand that we are suppose to be using tumblr as a device to express our thoughts about the course or even our fandom choice. This is super easy to accomplish because I have concerns about the future units and its nice to be able to express these concerns. Twitter is also a breeze because its really easy to make a 35 word response about a book. I can do that with my eyes closed.       

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Progress Blog 3

When I tell someone I am researching literacy practices within the fandom of Oprah Winfrey they look at me so confused and I laugh because I completely understand the expression now that I've read and understand the readings.

I hate reading books about school related things. Like science, math, English books that promote you to be better in that particular subject. Its so boring! So when you are required to read chapters out of an English or history book its kinda like personal torture. I understand that the ultimate goal is to learn, so I am not ignorant to the fact that reading  should be a part of education in all grade levels. Trust me its extremely important to read for the betterment of your knowledge. SO! I have two books for my English class this semester and unfortunately both of them put me to sleep lol. However I am getting to understand what exactly research proposals I need to be leaning towards. Shout out to the books you guys!!!! at least they’re worth SOME of my money for that reason. Ughhhh I only have two more months until everything is all over and ik can rest #itsallcomingtogether

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Beautiful

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It isn’t until you come to a spiritual understanding of who you are – not necessarily a religious feeling, but deep down, the spirit within – that you can begin to take control.” “Often we don’t even realize who we’re meant to be because we’re so busy trying to live out someone else’s ideas. But other people and their opinions hold no power in defining our destiny."

Oprah Winfrey