The fourth paradigm transformation of oral history

I just read an article about four paradigm shifts in oral history. The first was the conceptualization of oral history as valid for the modern, post WWII era. With the advent of radio, tape recorders, video, and similar technologies, oral recordings began to be placed alongside archival records as authentic and valid records of history. In a second paradigm shift, oral historians created a special place for memory as a valid source of history against positivist (ahem - conservative) critics who claimed that because memory was faulty or because participants remembered the past fondly, oral records lacked validity. Oral historians responded by pointing out that the silences and misremembrances of the past provided valid insight into the relationship of the past and the present. In a third paradigm, oral history became interdisciplinary. Oral historians used feminist studies and identity studies to query the relationship between narrator and historian.

Now we are in what Thomson calls the fourth paradigm of the digital era. As we are able to digitize audio and video records, will digital records replace the boxes of paper records I've searched through in my oral history project? Since we can touch-type, we create more text than anyone can possibly read... think of all the blogs out there with 2 readers. Ahem. But if someone were to conduct an oral history on me... would this blog replace the need for my voice? How would you go through the archival records if everything is on a computer, tied to an email account that someone no longer has access to? If those records, like letters in an archive, are important - should we think about how we are saving them? Digitizing records holds great possibility for providing more people with access to knowledge, but it also runs the risk of losing a great deal of items that previously would have been saved.

An interesting problem. Also I find that if I write a blog post in response to what I read, I tend to remember it better, so also an academic exercise for me.


Thomson, Alistair. "Four Paradigm Transformations in Oral History" published on January 1, 2007, Oral History Review 34: 49-70.