Money Talks: Narrator Compensation in Oral History

Abstract

ABSTRACT There is little public discussion about the compensation of narrators in oral history and no guidelines regarding the practice. This article seeks to open up a conversation about this issue. Drawing on our experience developing an oral history project with Central American migrant families, we discuss why we came to believe that paying project participants was appropriate and necessary. We review arguments for and against compensation and make a case for situated compensation: the idea that decisions about whether, how, and how much to pay narrators are project-specific and must take into consideration a series of factors, including the profile of the narrators, the nature of the interviews, the context of the project, and its goals or deliverables. We describe lessons learned from our experience and identify considerations that project designers should take into account as they assess decisions about narrator compensation. Conversations about payment should engage not only project designers but also funders, administrators, and narrators themselves.