IB Digital Society 3.5 Media Key Definitions

The idea that human attention is a scarce, valuable resource that platforms compete to capture and sell to advertisers, shaping media to be as engaging and hard to put down as possible.

Technology that overlays digital content onto a view of the real world, through a phone screen or glasses, adding to what you see rather than replacing it.

The process by which platforms review and remove content that breaks their rules or the law, deciding what is allowed to stay online and what is taken down.

The merging of once-separate media types and devices into single platforms, so one device can deliver text, audio, video, and games that used to need many separate tools.

A legal right that gives the creator of a work control over how it is copied, shared, and used, which digital media makes both easy to breach and hard to enforce.

A set of standard licences that let creators keep copyright while granting others clear permission to reuse, remix, or share their work under stated conditions.

A form of synthetic media in which AI is used to convincingly fabricate a person's face or voice, making them appear to say or do things they never did.

Any content stored and shared as digital data, including text, images, audio, and video, which can be copied, edited, and distributed almost instantly over digital systems.

The risk that digital media becomes unreadable over time as the formats, software, or hardware needed to open it are no longer supported, threatening long-term preservation.

The umbrella term covering all immersive technologies, from augmented reality through mixed reality to fully virtual reality, along the spectrum from the real world to the entirely simulated.

Digital media that envelops users in simulated or enhanced environments, making them feel present in the experience.

The capacity of digital media to respond to a user's actions, so people can influence or take part in the content rather than only receiving it, as in games and apps.

False or misleading information that spreads online, whether shared by mistake or deliberately, made harder to catch when convincing media can be produced and shared by anyone.

Technology where digital objects are anchored into the real world and can be interacted with as if physically present, blending the virtual and the real more tightly than AR.

The feeling of genuinely being inside a digital environment, so convincing that the brain reacts to it much as it would to a real place, which is what gives immersive media its power.

Media that is generated or heavily altered by artificial intelligence rather than captured from the real world, including AI-written text, images, audio, and video.

Media created and shared by ordinary users rather than professional producers, such as posts, reviews, videos, and comments uploaded to platforms.

A fully computer-generated environment, usually experienced through a headset that replaces what you see and hear, so the physical world is shut out and you feel present in a simulated one.