Experts’ Answers to Oral History Questions

100 Questions/14

Translated by Mandana Karimi

2026-1-27

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. The goal of this project is to open new doors to an issue and promote scientific discussions in the field of oral history.

In this project, a question is asked every Saturday, and we ask experts to present their views in the form of a short text (about 100 words) by the end of the week. All answers will be published together so that the audience can compare and analyze the views.

The content is the opinions of the senders and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Oral History website. Although the answers are supposed to be based on about 100 words, in order to be polite and not to leave the discussion incomplete, in some cases, answers longer than this are also accepted.

The experts are asked to submit their answers by Sunday night so that all answers can be published on Tuesday.

Question 14:

What is the difference between an oral history interview and other types of interviews?

Gholamreza Azari Khakestar

Oral history interviews differ fundamentally from other interviews, whether news or media, in terms of purpose and structure. The main goal of oral history is to record and record part of a historical narrative based on the experiences of individuals who are witnesses or causers of events. In these types of interviews, the statements of the interviewee as a witness or historical actor are considered a document for the future. For this reason, the time and place of the interview play a special role in recording information. Questions should be chosen in a way that strengthens the narrator's memory, concentration, and calmness. In oral history, the interviewer is not simply a questioner, but rather guides the narrative by actively listening, with care and focus, so that all details, feelings, and contexts of the event are recorded.

Mohammad Mehdi Abdollahzade

Interviewing in oral history is a tool for obtaining historical information and facts that is carried out in the process of face-to-face and oral communication between the interviewer and the interviewee. The validity of its findings depends on the cognitive, emotional, and psychological competencies of both parties to the interview. Before the interview, the interviewer, having obtained the necessary preparations, prepares a detailed and principled plan for entering the interview. During the interview, they conduct the interview based on certain standards. After that, they take the necessary steps to archive or publish the findings. Press interviews, job interviews, employment interviews, psychological interviews, counseling interviews, police interviews, diagnostic interviews, evaluation interviews, etc. Each of them is carried out with their appropriate goals and mechanisms.

Hassan Beheshtipour

Oral history interviews differ from other types of interviews (such as media news, quantitative, psychological, or occupational research) in several ways. These differences are evident in the purpose, relationship, structure, content, recording, and use of oral history. 1: Purpose: To record memories and lived experiences to reconstruct history in folk narratives; not immediate information or evaluation. 2: Relationship: The interview is a two-way, participatory relationship; the narrator is a witness to history and the interviewer plays a role in providing additional information; it is not one-sided and from an evaluative standpoint. 3: Structure: The interview is semi-structured, long, and narrative-oriented; not structured and short. 4: Content: Focuses on individual feelings and memory; other interviews seek objective or expert data. 5: Recording and ethics: Audio/video recording, permanent archiving with written consent; but in other interviews, it is used as a quick note.6: Result: The historical document is for research and education; in other cases, it is the product of news or practical decision.

Hamid Ghazvini

Oral history seeks to find an answer to the needs of today and tomorrow by referring to the past, and a kind of historicity prevails in it. An interview is formed when both parties (the narrator representing the past and the interviewer representing today and tomorrow) are ready to talk with the aim of resolving historical ambiguities. In this way, questions regarding when, what, where, who, how, and why are more important. Also, an oral history interview does not have the speed of selecting a narrator, conducting it, and publishing it. This feature allows for greater reflection, accuracy, and attention to detail.

Seyyed Mohammad Sadegh Feyz

Oral history interviews are different from other interviews such as news, research, and scientific interviews. Here, the narrator relies on events from the distant and recent past, and their statements will remain for the future. The interviewer also acts as a facilitator and collaborator. The time it takes to conduct it can also last for a long time. Questions may be prepared in advance; but they are not necessarily posed according to the interview process and may be deleted, edited, or modified. In this type of interview, ownership of the work is also important, and the narrator can intervene in it at any stage from the beginning to the end of the work. The interviewer cannot quote the narrator without their positive opinion and consent, or, unlike news interviews, challenge them for their actions.

Gholamreza Azizi

Oral history interviews have similarities and differences with other types of interviews (extensive, in-depth, semi-guided, guided, free, focused, etc.). Important differences can be seen in the areas of purpose, subject, interview method, interviewee, and interviewer. The main goal of oral history is to expand historical information and data in areas where there are either no documents or the existing documents and evidence are few or inconsistent. The topic under investigation is an “event in the past.” The main characteristic of interviewees in oral history projects is that they are the ones who ordered, acted upon, or were witnesses to a historical event. Interviewers also appear as historians by using the active interview method.

Abolfazl Hassanabadi

The word interview in oral history is interactive and means an active two-way conversation in which the interviewer and the interviewee discuss a topic in a conscious partnership. The difference between this type of interview and interviews such as interviews in psychology, journalism, and even biography writing, which have a different nature and structure from oral history, is in the purposefulness of conducting the interview, the proper design of the project, the challenge of the interview, and compliance with oral history standards at its various stages, which provides a suitable platform for the production of oral data.