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  • Ethical Editing
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    Using Visual Histories

    For many of the interview subjects, or "narrators," included in the Densho Digital Repository their visual history is the first time they may have talked openly about their life experience. The memories they share are deeply personal, and sometimes painful or traumatic, yet they want their stories to be heard and (re)used to help educate and inform. The vast majority of the interviews are available under a Creative Commons license, and the narrators have allowed us to provide the production-quality, high-resolution video to you for your own video and multimedia projects (see, "Using and Citing Content for more information).

    We ask that you, as a user, reflect on why interviews are important and what impact the ways you use them may have.

    Watching interviews provides the opportunity to:

    • Learn about history from someone who experienced it firsthand - putting a human face to the past. This perspective is often missing from textbook study.
    • Think critically about concepts of civil liberties, racial discrimination, and social justice.
    • Recognize the power of personal stories to inform and inspire.

    To more fully understand interviews:

    • Study the historical context. – Learn about the time, place, and culture that surround the events shared by the interviewees. Explore many different topics in the Densho Encyclopedia
    • Think about the source. – What information is available about the interviewee? The interviewer? When and where was the interview conducted? How might any of this effect the content of the interview?
    • Watch and listen to the interview carefully.
      • Use background knowledge to deepen your understanding of what the interviewee talks about.
      • Think about what you didn’t hear in the interview. Identify what may be missing from the interview by developing questions about the content.
      • Review the interview more than once. If a transcript is available, read it closely, noting details that are of particular interest or that raise questions for you.
    • Corroborate information across multiple sources. - Explore different sources to determine points of agreement and disagreement about important details.
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    Editing Visual History Interviews

    Editing is a process of:

    1. Selecting – choosing pieces of the interview that you want to feature, and
    2. Recombining - putting pieces of video together in a new way, different from the original material.

    The way that you choose to juxtapose different video images creates meaning in the viewer’s mind. This requires the editor to be responsible and make careful choices to stay true to the original story.

    Ethical Editing Guidelines

    Editing visual history interviews requires one to be responsible, honorable, and respectful. Following these guidelines will help to ensure a credible, quality product.

    1. Respect the truth.
      • Stay true to the meaning and intent of the original source material.
      • Tell the story with accuracy – names, dates, places, etc.
    2. Honor the trust of your viewer. – Avoid misleading or confusing the viewer.
      • Review how you juxtapose or edit pieces of video together to be sure it tells the story that you want to create.
      • When using photos or other images to compliment the video interview, provide onscreen identification so the viewer knows what they are looking at and where it came from.
      • Understand the emotional impact of music and sound effects. Use these responsibly to tell an accurate story.
    3. Respect the interviewee. – Create a story that the interviewee would appreciate.
      • The interviewee is sharing a personal story. Be considerate of sensitive aspects and the possible vulnerability of the interviewee.
      • Ask yourself how the interviewee would feel about your video.

    Adapted from materials by USC Shoah Foundation iWitness and "Thinking Like a Historian" by Sam Wineburg, director of the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program at Stanford University.

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    FOR MORE INFORMATION

    Radio Television Digital News Association
    Guidelines for Ethical Video and Audio Editing

    School Video News
    Ethical Considerations

    National Press Photographers Association
    NPPA Code of Ethics

    USC Shoah Foundation iWitness
    Editing basics and ethics
    Teacher workshop video
    Using Testimony PDF for teachers

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