Oprahization
n. The increased tendency for people to publicly describe their feelings and emotions and confess their past indiscretions.
Pronunciation
Etymology
Examples
2001
The new president may bring back any number of people from the first Bush administration, but he inherits a media world far different from the one his father left behind eight years ago, before the explosion of 24-hour news and the Oprahization of politics.
—Caryn James, “The Inauguration,” The New York Times, January 21, 2001
1994 (earliest)
The Oprahization of our culture — the astonishing propensity to tell all, even the most sacred, private things to an audience of strangers — has fueled the Bobbitt case.
—Molly Mayfield, “The Bobbitt tragicomedy,” Denver Rocky Mountain News, January 16, 1994
Notes
I call it the Oprahization of the jury pool," says Dan Lungren, attorney general of California. "It's the idea that people have become so set on viewing things from the Oprah view, the Geraldo view or the Phil Donahue view that they bring that into the jury box with them. And I think at base much of that tends to say, 'We don't hold people responsible for their actions because they've been the victim of some influence at some time in their life.'
—Sophronia Scott Gregory, “Oprah! Oprah in the Court!,” Time, June 06, 1994
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