Theories about oral history narrated by artificial intelligence
Theory Five: The borderline status of the source in oral history
Machine Translation Edited by Mandana Karimi
2026-8-13
Oral history, more than being an accumulation of narrative, is a field of methodical dialogue between memory, power, ethics, and representation. In the meantime, one of the challenges for researchers in this field is to move from “interview report” to “theoretical structure”; a question to which each expert, based on his or her experience and intellectual framework, gives a different answer.
If we provide the answers of 7 oral history experts - who have answered a specific question on the oral history website - to artificial intelligence, what patterns and repetitions will be obtained? Is artificial intelligence simply reflecting the consensus of opinions or will it arrive at a theory from the plurality of answers?
To find the result, we analyzed the experts’ answers with the help of DeepSeek artificial intelligence and came up with some theories. From now on, the theories extracted by artificial intelligence based on the experts' responses will be presented in order to open a new chapter in theorizing on the subject of oral history.
■■■
Theory Five: The Borderline Status of the Source in Oral History
Theoretical sentence:
Oral history is neither absolutely a first-hand source nor absolutely a second-hand one, but rather is in a "borderline status" between the two. On the one hand, due to the narrator's contemporaneity with the event and direct access to lived experience, it has the potential to be a first-hand source; on the other hand, the interference of memory, time distance, the narrator's bias, and the interviewer's role in producing the narrative push it towards a "second-hand source" dependent on the conditions of production. Therefore, the primary or secondary value of oral history depends on three variables: "temporal proximity to the event", "interview methodology", and "compatibility with independent written sources”. Theoretical Background:
This theory is based on the responses of 7 oral history experts (Gholamreza Azari Khakestar, Mohammad Mehdi Behdarvand, Hassan Beheshtipour, Mohammad Mehdi Abdollahzadeh, Seyyed Mohammad Sadeq Feyz, Hamid Qazvini, and Shafiqeh Niknafs) to the question “Is oral history a primary source in historical research?” The repetition of concepts such as “the presence or absence of the narrator’s direct presence in the event”, “the role of memory and time distance in reducing credibility”, “the need for verification and comparison with written documents”, “the difference between the first and second source based on the interview method and temporal proximity to the event”, “the effect of the interviewer’s intervention in the production of the narrative”, and “the dependence of the source’s position on the conditions of production” in these responses has led artificial intelligence to the model you studied.
To view the experts’ initial responses to this question, click here.
Number of Visits: 4
The latest
- Theory Five: The borderline status of the source in oral history
- Saro Yaqubian's Memories
- Documentary Pathology of the US Embassy Documents
- 100 Questions / 42
- The Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War-41
- The late Simindokht Vahidi in the Mirror of Poets’ Memories
- Memories of Mohammad Ali Shabani
- Military Oral History and War Oral History
Most visited
- Arbaeen in the Heart of the Neighborhood
- 100 Questions / 41
- The Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War-41
- Military Oral History and War Oral History
- Memories of Mohammad Ali Shabani
- The late Simindokht Vahidi in the Mirror of Poets’ Memories
- The Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War-41
- 100 Questions / 42
100 Questions/ 34
To what extent are we allowed to use narrative techniques (however simple) in compiling an oral history text?We asked several researchers and activists in the field of oral history to express their views on oral history questions. The names of each participant are listed at the beginning of their answers, and the text of all answers will be published on this portal by the end of the week.
Validation: Challenges and Necessities
Where does truth stand in oral history? How can the correctness of a narrative be recognized? Does fact-checking matter? If there is exaggeration in the reporting of some accounts, how can it be detected? Is it possible to record an event accurately through the recording of a narrative? Readers and users of oral history works are often faced with these questions, and sometimes encounter doubts about some oral history works.From Revolutionary Circles to the Military Arm of the Islamic Government
In those days, it became clear that certain institutions had to be established very quickly—institutions suited to the temperament, expectations, and lingering aspirations of the younger generation; young people who had been politically active before the Revolution and, in some cases, had been directly entangled in arrests, imprisonment, ...Authenticating Oral History: From Possibility to Necessity
The use of oral history as one of the historical sources has long been one of the principal challenges facing oral historians and those who employ it in contemporary historiography. The development of international standards for oral history, as well as IRIB standards, was intended to address the criticisms raised in this regard. The relationship between Diplomatics in written records and oral history is reciprocal.
