There are four main content types: text, image, audio and video. Using readily available tools we can easily convert content between the four types, making the content available to a wider (e.g. tv and radio) or a specific (e.g. text based when equipment is absent) audience.
Text - People who are literate can read text or people can read text out to others (eg teachers or facilitators to a class or group). Typical examples of text are books and newspaper articles. Text can also be in digital form such as website texts. Often images are added to texts to illustrate the story or to visually explain something.
Image - these can be of various types e.g. photographs and drawings. One does not need to be literate to understand images. The same is true for audio and video. Images are a visual means, literally to show something. Images can tell a powerful and convincing story, especially when the viewer can identify with the images, e.g. their area, their people, their issues and solutions. When an image stirs an emotional reaction they can be particularly persuasive to an audience.
Audio - when text is recorded and played to others,e.g. via radio, we call it audio. Audio is the content type, radio is, in this case, the channel. Audio can have a larger impact when it is followed by debate e.g. via radio (audio) listening groups. Radio is not the only channel audio can be used on. It can be recorded and played on audio recorders and most modern mobile phones, tablets and laptops have audio recording and playback features.
Video - this is the fourth and last format. It is also the richest because the audience can both see something and they can listen to something i.e. multiple senses are used. Like audio, video can nowadays be recorded and played back on modern mobile phones, tablets and laptops computers.
Conversion
Here you will find general guidelines on how to convert on media type to another:
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The 12 conversions
TEXT>AUDIO You need to record the text and for that you need to use a suitable voice and a device to record with. Mobiles, tablets and laptop and some desktop computers have a built-in voice recorders, so you do not need to buy a separate device. The voice to record the text with needs to be very clear and preferably without accent. Also, he/she should talk clearly and not too fast. You might need to record several times before the recording is of good quality. Make sure there are no background noises, if possible, if you have one, use a microphone (mobile phone headsets often have a microphone). Save the file (preferably as mp3 file) and done! You can either play the audio to a group, hand it to a radio station or use it to make a video; see AUDIO>VIDEO here below.
TEXT>IMAGE Think about the essence of the story; what is it about, what is the message? There are several (easy) ways to convert text into an image: make a drawing, take a photo or ask an artist to create an image. Often text and images are combined; think for example of poster with a image that captures the essence of the poster, but the poster also contains text to promote an event, raise awareness on an issue, etc.
TEXT>VIDEO To convert text to video we need images (video consists of a set of "still images" or "frames") and audio. So to convert text to video we need to convert it to images and audio first. A whole different approach can be to record a fresh video from the text. This can be done with a video recorder (on mobile phones, tablets and laptops) whereby someone reads out the text and the person is recorded doing so.
AUDIO>TEXT When we have an audio recording such as a radio broadcast, we can convert it to text by writing down the words. As radio is a live broadcast we might need to record it first with a audio or voice recorder. The process of converting audio to text is called transcription.
AUDIO>IMAGE We can do this in two steps: AUDIO>TEXT and then TEXT>IMAGE.
AUDIO>VIDEO Video is a combination of (a set of) images and audio. So if we have the audio available we just need to add the images. The simplest form of creating video is to take a set of images (drawings, photos, etc.) and create a video slideshow out of it. Popular software to do this is Windows movie maker.
IMAGE>TEXT There are many types of images. For this conversion we need to find out what the image is telling us, or what we want it to show to the audience. We might need to investigate the background to the image (e.g. the story of the person in a photo). When you write down the story, you have the text version.
IMAGE>AUDIO For this conversion we need to first convert the IMAGE>TEXT and then TEXT>AUDIO.
IMAGE>VIDEO As described above under AUDIO>VIDEO we will combine images with audio to create video. The simplest form is to create a video slideshow with a set of images. A more complex and time consuming methods are animation (cartoon) videos.
VIDEO>TEXT This is the same transcription process as with AUDIO>TEXT.
VIDEO>AUDIO Video has an image and an audio track. By isolating the audio track and saving that separately on our computer, we can convert video to audio. This can be done with most video editing software tools.
VIDEO>IMAGE Similar to the previous conversion (VIDEO>AUDIO) we can extract images from video. These are called "stills" or "frames". On computers it can also be realised by making screenshots. To create a good quality (still) image with sharp enough quality you might need to fiddle around and try a few times.
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