Practice question · Multiple choice
The same person gives noticeably different accounts to a university researcher and to a community oral-history project. Which conclusion is best supported?
Hints
- Ask what the narrator thinks each interview is for, and who they imagine will hear it.
- Two accounts, one person. Is variation evidence of dishonesty?
Show the answer
B. That the interview is a joint product of both parties
Why
Testimony is produced in a relationship, so the questioner's identity and purpose belong in the source description alongside the answers. It is why oral historians archive the interviewer's questions and their own position, and why option 3's appeal to authenticity smuggles in a preferred context rather than removing the effect.
Practise Oral History and Testimony
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- Complete the practice.