Oral History
Hello all, how have you guys been since my last post?
I hope you’re all doing ok. Today we will be going into another aspect under
Digital Humanities which will be Oral History. Oral history is “the collection and study of historical
information using sound recordings of interviews with people having personal
knowledge of past events” (Google Dictionary). Some examples of these
are podcasts and interviews.
I know you must be wondering, how is oral history any
different from a photograph or written history? Well, I can say from a viewer’s
perspective and from a participant’s perspective the experience is very
different. When we listen to oral history there’s more context to the story or event,
meaning that you will get a better understanding of what the person has to say
by the way they react to different things and the tone of voice they use, the
emotions that they express through their language, etc. Oral history can be
very personal so whenever you listen to it you feel closer to the individual
telling the story and/or the people in the story/event, in a sense where you feel
like you know them or can relate to them. Oral history also allows people who
have disabilities to take part in learning about a person or an event in
history. It can also just be a regular person who finds it easier to understand
while on the run to help them with multitasking. read
history or observe a historical photograph we can come up can give our own meanings
to things and
The Oral History I did listen to was from the Caribbean Diaspora Oral
Histories Collection which was a collection
of videos with transcripts about people who came from different countries in
the Caribbean to migrate to the United States. In the recordings the guests
also shared their stories of how they came to America and how they adapted
and/or made a life for themselves. I found that there are a lot of untold
stories, histories, and events in oral history and you get to connect with the
speakers with the way they would answer questions when they were being questioned
by the host.
My experience
with hosting my own Oral History was something I didn’t expect. Before doing, I
was very nervous, and I thought that I wouldn’t have anything to talk about for
the time I wanted the recording to last. Yet, as soon as I started it went much
smoother than I thought it would. I must admit that I did have to restart about
once or twice and I did have to stop the recording a few times, but regardless
I liked it and it was an enjoyable experience. I learned a lot from my mother
who was the guest on my oral history, and surprisingly we had a lot to talk about,
so I only had to worry about going overtime. From this oral history, I learned
that my mother and I are a lot more similar than I had thought before and I
like the thought of that. The oral history was more of a conversation more than
an interview because I would also answer the questions along with my mother and
also share my two cents (stating my opinions). After I finished the recording,
I decided to make the audio public to anyone who has an account on StoryCorps so
that people can get to listen to it and learn from it or maybe be inspired to
do something like it in the future or react to it. Hopefully, you guys can go
and check it out using the link above.
Like
always, keep healthy and safe until next time.
~Bye~
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