Theories about oral history narrated by artificial intelligence
Third Theory: Covering up the gaps in the document with oral narration
Machine Translation edited by Mandana Karimi
2026-6-25
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 8 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 topic of oral history.
Third Theory: Covering up the Defects (Covering the Documentary Gap with Oral Narrative)
Theoretical Sentence:
As we get closer to the contemporary period, official documents are either unavailable or are affected by information gatekeeping and political manipulation; in this situation, memory (as the raw material of lived experience) and oral history (as a method of verification and analysis) are not rivals, but rather two layers of an existential bridge that compensate for the loneliness of the document, add the voice of the inferior and invisible classes to history, and pierce the veil of time to understand the why of contemporary human actions; hence, their fundamental importance is rooted in the "structural defect of official sources" and the "human existential need for stability and narrative. "Theoretical Background:
This theory is based on the responses of 8 oral history experts (Gholamreza Azari Khakster, Mohammad Mehdi Behdarvand, Hassan Beheshtipour, Abolfazl Hassanabadi, Mohammad Mehdi Abdollahzadeh, Seyyed Mohammad Sadeq Feyz, Hamid Qazvini, and Shafiqeh Niknafs) to the question, “What is the importance of memory or oral history in the contemporary era?”; the repetition of concepts such as “compensating for the void of written documents,” “the voice of the inferior and invisible classes,” “the link between individual experience and collective memory,” “resistance to information gatekeeping and media manipulation,” “helping to discover hidden layers of reality,” “preserving oral heritage and transmitting identity to future generations,” and “reducing the veil of time to understand the whys and wherefores of contemporary human actions” in these responses has led artificial intelligence to the model you have studied.
To view the experts’ initial responses to this question, click here.
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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
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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.100 Questions/27
What is the place of research ethics in compiling oral history?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.
