Culture · 6 pages · 12 min
How oral history differs from rumor
Oral history is a recorded interview with a named person. Rumor has no one to ask.
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From the opening
Oral history is a deliberate account taken from a person about events they lived or witnessed, usually recorded, with the speaker's name and the circumstances of the interview kept. Rumor is a story passed along without a recoverable speaker, a date, or a way to ask the question again. The opening covers a named narrator on a recording, rumor has no one to question, and memory can still be wrong.
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Inside
- A named narrator on a recording
- Rumor has no one to question
- Memory can still be wrong
- The archive keeps the circumstances
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Recorded oral history interviews as attributable sources
- Alessandro Portelli on oral history and meaning