The development of oral history

Since the appearance of the first set of recording equipment in the world, from wax drums to disks, tape recorders, cassette tapes and cassette tapes, oral history work in the modern sense has really been born. The earliest memory records can be traced back to19th century —— A Columbia Oral A Laboratory contains the first-hand memories of 1863 new york's bloody conscription riots. From 65438 to 0948, the establishment of Columbia Oral History Laboratory of Columbia University marked the emergence of modern oral history. From 1960 to 1966, the United States established 90 institutions specializing in oral history. 1967. The Oral History Association (OHA), a national oral history institution, was established in the United States. It provides a platform for academic exchange and promotion of oral history. 1980, the association formulated the academic norms and evaluation standards of oral history, and a set of rules of oral history was generally recognized by the academic circles. Since then, oral history has developed rapidly in Canada, Britain, France, Singapore and Japan, and a large number of oral historians and professional research groups have emerged. Therefore, a large number of oral history magazines and monographs have sprung up and published in large numbers. China's Hongkong and Taiwan Province provinces have also made progress in oral history.

As early as 1950s, Chinese historians collected data by social investigation and oral history, and vigorously promoted the "New Four History"-family history, factory history, social history and village history. CPPCC at all levels, from central to local, has literature and history materials and publications, as well as relevant administrative departments. But because most of them are government actions, and the content, scope and objects are relatively simple. The materials collected are very limited, and the methods are relatively simple, mainly writing notes or doing it yourself. The quality and preservation of a few tapes are not satisfactory. In recent years. Modern oral history has attracted more and more attention. Participants are not only historians, but also scholars of sociology, anthropology and folklore. Some universities and professional research departments have set up specialized oral history research institutions, and related works have been published one after another. China Academy of Social Sciences published oral history in 2003.

In the second half of 2004, the China Oral History Research Association was established, which marked a preliminary exchange and promotion platform for oral history research in China. Oral history is widely used, and many disciplines and folk history research groups use oral history methods to enrich their historical dimensions. Researchers began to pay attention to field investigation and the collection and analysis of original data. There is an urgent need for first-hand information such as oral history. With the development of science and technology, the price of audio and video recording equipment has been greatly reduced, and the rapid development of computer technology, recording pen and digital technology has also provided the possibility for the extensive development of oral history. The oral history work ushered in an important opportunity and began to flourish.

An important function of oral history is to provide information. For historians, oral history can make up for the lack of historical materials. For anthropologists and folklore experts, oral history is often the only source of knowledge, such as some folk artists, whose memories can provide social and cultural background information and folk knowledge related to the art. When asked about the oral biographies of celebrities and the oral history of little people, Guo said: "(Both) are necessary, because those celebrities are also old people, and they can't write them themselves. Oral history has the nature of rescue materials. "

Although it is the common wish of many oral history collectors to rescue materials, the purpose of rescuing materials is to discover more historical truth. The choice of the object of oral history collection reflects a scholar's position to some extent. An American folklorist once asked why there are so many museums and related studies about Jews' World War II experiences in the United States, but there are few museums about Indians and African-Americans. Our scholars also know that only the collected oral history can be read by people. Oral history plays an important role in American history and folklore, and the American Folklore Center under the Library of Congress has a huge oral history database. In China, at present, historians mainly focus on the development of oral history theory and practice. Yang, a professor of folklore at Beijing Normal University, pointed out that although oral history is not the mainstream method in China folklore, with the communication with American folklore since 1990s, this method has been familiar and used by more and more scholars. For example, the study of oral history is often used to study the individual inheritors of folk art, such as the inheritance of a folk story. Anthropologist Hu Hongbao emphasized the difference between the interviewees of oral history and popular interviews. He thinks that China's oral history is still in an immature stage, which needs more discussion in theory and method. Different from their peers who are engaged in oral history practice, historians Zuo did theoretical research on oral history, aiming at promoting the development of oral history in China from theoretical research.

In September 2008, the Program Information Center of Shanghai Media Group and Shanghai Audio-visual Archive officially launched the project "Commemorating the 60th Anniversary of Shanghai People's Broadcasting: Oral History of Old Announcers", aiming at establishing a comprehensive, authentic and vivid historical archive of Shanghai People's Broadcasting. The project has received the attention and support of the leaders of the group and the affirmation and support of the Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation. Similarly, as one of the main projects of the 60th anniversary of Shanghai People's Broadcasting, SMG broadcast media asset management system was formally established in May 2008, which was jointly developed and built by the program information center and technical operation center of Shanghai Wenguang News Media Group. The above two projects have been listed by Shanghai Media Group as an important part of a series of activities to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Shanghai People's Broadcasting. After more than a year of active efforts, gratifying and valuable results have been achieved.

The project of "Old Announcer Oral History" traces and records the extraordinary development history of Shanghai people's broadcasting industry by interviewing and shooting a group of old-timers in Shanghai broadcasting industry. * * * Completed interviews with 42 old broadcasters in Shanghai (Xia Zhiping, Qian Naili, Shi, Shi Suihua, zay, Zhang Zhi, Ha Lilian, Chen Chun, Yang, Fan Huifeng, Deng Pingsheng, He Zhanchun, Wu Zhonghua, Ge, Zhou Ji, Guo Zaijing, Lai Sujuan, He, Liu, etc. Among them, there are early radio leaders, first-generation announcers, editors, journalists, sound engineers and so on. It basically covered all professional posts at that time, and comprehensively reflected the pioneering course of predecessors, the growth track of the broadcasting industry and the wonderful fragments of reform and development. The project has been fully affirmed and supported by the old broadcasting organizations, and has formed a positive social impact. Project * * * formed 39 videotapes, 35 DVD discs, 34 audio discs and 32 pictures, and the total interview and shooting time exceeded 65 hours.

The project of "SMG broadcast media asset management system" aims to establish a digital business platform for all broadcast frequencies of the media group, realize efficient management and comprehensive enjoyment of audio materials, and promote the development and value-added of the group's broadcast content resources. The system will realize multi-channel and high-quality collection, collection and screening of broadcast content resources, and establish a long-term mechanism of "storage, management and service" for broadcast programs and production materials, so as to make SMG's broadcast resources retrieval more convenient and efficient. Over the past three years, the project data center has digitally transmitted more than 70,000 hours of audio data from more than 654.38+800 million tapes, records and other media. At present, nearly 370,000 broadcast programs and materials of 1 have been formed, which has laid a solid foundation for the broadcast media asset management system. The radio and television media asset management system is of special significance in the overall planning and development strategy of Shanghai radio and television media asset system construction, and will play an important supporting role for the new round of innovation and development of Shanghai radio and television industry. On May 20, 2009, Shanghai Wenguang News Media Group held "Commemorating the 60th Anniversary of Shanghai People's Broadcasting: Presentation of the Achievements of the Old Announcer's Oral History Project and Opening Ceremony of the Broadcast Media Asset Management System". Member the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC), Vice Minister of Propaganda Department of Municipal Party Committee, Director of Shanghai Film and Television Administration, Secretary and President of Shanghai Film and Television Group Xue Peijian, President of Shanghai News and Media Group Bei Genyuan, Vice President of Shanghai News and Media Group Li Ruigang, Li Shangzhi, Lin Luohua, Wang Qiangjian, Assistant President Chen Jinyou and relevant leaders of Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation congratulated the meeting. Gong Xueping, Song Chao and Li Ruigang made speeches on the achievements and values of these two projects respectively.