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Should you always capture all sides of the debate? Does impartiality involve more than a simple matter of ‘balance’ between opposing viewpoints? Can you be neutral in what you choose to record or in your interpretation? And should you try to be? In this workshop we will explore whether journalistic values of impartiality may be useful to oral historians. Impartiality involves reflecting all sides of an argument, basing research, interviewing and representation on evidence, transparency and informed judgements. We’ll situate this within the findings of the Connected Histories of the BBC project, led by the University of Sussex in partnership with the BBC. This has brought rare oral history collections about the BBC into the public realm. It also reveals where the BBC has asserted – but also struggled with – impartiality as a guiding principle for fair representation. Impartiality is also an important idea – and challenge – for oral historians, where the value of lived experience, subjectivity and feeling have become touchstones for the field.

We’ll focus on sharing our experiences of impartiality as guideline, ideal or restriction, in oral history practice as well as in our media consumption – whether breakfast TV or Radio 4’s Archive Hour. This will include a look back at the BBC’s own rethinking about broadcasting and ‘the subjective dimension’ in the 1970s and 80 and 90s, in experiments with ‘people’s television’ such as Open Door and Video Nation. Using structured discussion and ‘jury’ exercises with selected case studies, we’ll discuss how oral history – arguably partial by design – helped and still helps to democratise media practice within the BBC. But we’ll  also consider whether impartiality has fresh relevance in an era of fake news and polarised opinion.

Participants may be interested in preparing for this workshop by reading a short article about impartiality, on the project’s Voices of the BBC site, written by project advisor Jean Seaton.

More information about the Oral History Festival at the British Library.

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Posted on behalf of: The School of Media, Arts and Humanities
Last updated: Tuesday, 25 June 2024