Intermediate
40 mins
Teacher/Student led
+75 XP

How Format Shapes the Message

Investigate how the same story changes when told as text, an image, audio or short video. Identify what each format highlights or omits and select formats for building trust or easy sharing.

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    1 - Start ~4 mins

    Illustration for StartYou already have a way to judge content using theme, purpose, audience and techniques. Today the story stays the same and only the format changes: text, image, audio and short video. You will compare what each format emphasises, what it leaves out, and what it makes easy to share, then choose formats for trust and for shareability and name the trade-off.

    2 - Examine and Discuss ~4 mins

    Illustration for Examine and discussFormat is the shape a story takes: a written post, a still image, a voice clip, a short video. The facts can be identical and the experience still changes, because each format controls what you notice first, how long you stay with it, and how easily you pass it on.

    Example

    A flood warning is a clear example: a short text can list times and official advice; a photo of high water hits feeling first; a calm or urgent voice changes the mood; a dramatic vertical clip can make normal water look alarming.

    Key question

    Today's key question: when the facts stay the same, what does the format change about how the story reaches you?

    3 - Hands-on: Same Story, Four Ways ~14 mins

    Key point

    Work in pairs. The story is the same invented event in four formats. Your teacher controls the order: still first, then the short clip, then audio, then the text post last. Use the shared facts as your baseline. Fill the notes table with short bullets (not full sentences). You may write same as baseline in a cell instead of rewriting a fact you already know from the list.

    The shared facts (baseline)

    • Last night a lorry shed its load on the N72 bridge near the fictional town of Glenford.
    • The bridge is closed until Friday.
    • Traffic is diverted through the town centre.
    • Nobody was hurt.
    • The load was sealed cartons of soft drinks; local crews cleared most of it by morning.
    • Glenford Community College opens as usual; the diversion adds about ten minutes to the school bus route.

    How you will meet each format

    • Format 1: image. Study the still on screen for about 20 seconds. Do not read ahead.
    • Format 2: short video. Your teacher clicks through the three frames below once, at video speed. You cannot pause it, and that is the point.
    • Format 3: audio. Listen while your teacher reads it once.
    • Format 4: text post. Revealed last. Fill the table from what you saw and heard, using the shared facts as baseline.

    Format 2: the three frames

    This is the video, told as three frames. Watch the on-screen words as much as the picture.

    1. Empty bridge, cones across both lanes. Large words on screen: BRIDGE CHAOS.
    2. Orange diversion sign, a crushed carton at the kerb. Large words on screen: AVOID GLENFORD.
    3. Same scene held. Small type only: N72 closed till Fri. Nobody hurt.

    Shared notes table (pairs)

    One table for the pair, on screen below: a column per format, and a short bullet under each for all three of these. One is started for you.

    • Notice first (example under Image: cones and empty bridge)
    • Easy to miss
    • If someone only saw this and reshared it, what would they think happened?
    Tip

    Be ready for the next step with a draft of this board line (you will share it then): Format changes ___ about this story, because ___.

    Same story, four ways

    4 - Your Turn ~8 mins

    Key point

    On your own, pick one of the story briefs below (or a school-appropriate story of your own that you can state in two sentences). You will choose formats, not write the full pieces.

    Story briefs (invented)

    • A: Your year group raised €1,800 for a local youth café through a sponsored silence.
    • B: Friday's inter-schools debate final is moved from the hall to the library because of a heating fault.
    • C: A new cycle lane on the main road to school will open next Monday; the old right-turn filter is closed during works.

    Before you finish, check

    • You have named your story in one or two sentences.
    • You have chosen one format to publish if your main goal is to be most trusted, with one reason tied to what that format can carry (detail, sources, calm tone, room for context).
    • You have chosen one format to publish if your main goal is to be most shareable, with one reason tied to speed, feeling, or how the platform passes it on.
    • You have written one plain sentence naming the trade-off: what you gain with the shareable choice and what you risk losing on trust (or the other way round).

    5 - Make Sense ~5 mins

    First, pairs share their board line: Format changes ___ about this story, because ___.

    Then, from those lines and your format choices:

    • What did text hold that the other formats left out or made hard to catch?
    • What did the video add that was not in the shared facts?
    • Which trust choice and which shareability choice came up most, and what trade-off did you name?
    Key point

    Two-line takeaway to leave on the board:

    • Format steers attention and what gets passed on.
    • Choosing a format is always a trust-versus-reach trade-off.
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