Sarah   Wagner

On Tuesday, March 29,2011 my group, Amy, Julianne and myself began our Oral History Project interviewing Johandy Martinez, a close friend of Julianne, about his struggles with weight gain and weight loss during college. During his freshman year he really saw the immediate effects of living on your own and knew he needed to make changes in his lifestyle. During his interview he explained his struggle as well as giving pointers for anyone who is struggling with weight loss. 

Overall, the interview went really well. The chemistry between Julianne and Johandy was very strong and you can see the comfort of "talking" to one another. I kept thinking to myself that if I was the one asking the questions the interview may have went into another direction. 


Next we have planned to get a female's perspective on gaining weight in college but we are developing conflicts in schedules of all participating parties. 

In the article What is Oral History it is stated that “Although the conversation takes the form of an interview, in which one person--the interviewer--asks questions of another person--variously referred to as the interviewee or narrator--oral history is, at its heart, a dialogue.”

Oral history is essentially expressed through conversation as stated above. The specific questions chosen by the interviewer creates the atmosphere and the essential twist towards a specific answer. It is essential to record everything one says. If you miss one word their is a possible chance where you can throw off the whole concept/idea. With that being said it seems like a lot of people today are recording interviews rather than writing down the interviews like times before. Once recorded the reporter can constantly replay what was said in order to get the essential point across. Oh the world of technology.