What will happen for oral history in the future?

Hamid Ghazvini
Translated by: M.B. Khoshnevisan

2024-11-19

The growth of technology and public access to communication facilities in various fields and expansion of using artificial intelligence (AI) have faced the future of some jobs with ambiguity and hesitation. Will oral history also suffer this fate and join the ring of disciplines that gradually fade, and their importance decrease?

In response to the question, we must see what is the axis of oral history around which this field was formed and what is its position in the future?

It is clear that man, his observation, feeling and action are the focus of oral history. The phenomenon will never go out of context and the importance of its surrounding disciplines will not be reduced. In a general assessment, it seems that oral history is increasingly related to the fields of anthropology, philosophy, sociology, psychology, cultural studies, art, literature and other disciplines and will continue to exist.

We should not forget that the public interest in studying people's experiences and the desire to know the connection between the current situation and past events and the significance of finding personal and social identity will continue to maintain oral history as a research tool. Because of this, oral history will be considered an important source for all scientific and work fields and can be used in media, documentaries and even art projects and be widely available to the public.

These interactions can help enrich scientific studies and reveal new angles of human existence in different actions. On the other hand, oral history is a powerful tool for documentation and social, political and cultural analysis because it records the views and experiences of ordinary people.

Thus, with the advancement of audio and video recording technologies and the transcription of texts, oral history will be equipped with a better tool for data collection, extraction and archiving. These technologies enable more accurate and high-quality documentation and help historians present information in a more interactive and multimedia way. In addition, artificial intelligence will help in asking questions, identifying topics and finding more narrators.

Perhaps, the most important challenge facing this field is the unregulated publication of memoirs and not complying with ethical and legal frameworks in this field, for which the society will consider the necessary measures.

Also, another question is, what skills should the oral history activist learn in order to be more fortunate to get a suitable job opportunity in the future? Is it enough to have common abilities to conduct interviews, write and edit the work to be present in the future digital world?

Some studies related to future research show that in addition to conventional knowledge and expertise in each field, the most important skills are to have a critical view based on analytical and creative thinking and paying attention to details. The lack of this type of thinking leads to getting caught up in superficial attitudes to all social phenomena, which is ineffective in interviewing and producing work. In fact, the oral history activist needs a multi-dimensional and critical view in which he can identify new subjects, design questions and complete the oral history project according to the needs of the audience.

Moreover, technological knowledge, the ability to work with computer software, the ability to cooperate with others, and the skill in quality control are other skills that an oral history activist should not neglect.