In many ways, oral history interviewers are like reporters. But whereas reporters try to keep their stories balanced, many oral history inter viewers have to focus on certain kinds of people, or take whatever they can find. Unfortunately, for events long past, it is hard to find anyone who was around then, so it is hard to get a balanced perspective.
在許多方面，口述歷史訪員和文字媒體記者角色類似，記者對新聞事件中「平衡報導」大多奉為圭臬，而口述歷史訪員，卻常因為受訪者已設定為某類人物，甚或因受訪耆老年事已大，同儕所剩無幾，根本很難訪到，遑論其他。