Digital systems change self-expression by expanding who can create and distribute content, enabling interactive multimedia forms, and allowing algorithms to shape which expressions become visible. This is Expression (2.2), shared by SL and HL students.
Expression is the representation of ideas, emotions, and experiences through modes and media. Digital media combine computing, communication, and content, letting users integrate text, audio, video, images, and interactive elements and distribute them across networks.
| Way expression changes | Mechanism and consequence |
|---|---|
| More people can publish | Platforms reduce publishing costs, although unequal access still excludes some communities. |
| Expression becomes interactive | Comments, remixes, livestreams, and collaborative tools make audiences participants and co-creators. |
| Identities become adaptable | Profiles, avatars, usernames, and communities support different public personas. |
| Visibility becomes algorithmic | Recommendation algorithms rank content, giving platforms power over which voices receive attention. |
| Content becomes easier to modify | Editing tools and generative AI support creativity but raise dilemmas around authenticity, ownership, and misinformation. |
System: TikTok is a digital media platform using data and recommendation algorithms to distribute short-form videos. Example specifics: TikTok's Duet feature lets users respond beside a video; 2020's Stitch feature lets users incorporate part of another video into their own.
Impacts: These tools enable collaborative humour, commentary, activism, and cultural remixing, but creators may lose control over context and face harassment or copyright disputes. Implications: They expand participation, while algorithmic ranking risks amplifying some expressions, marginalizing others, and concentrating platform power.
The example shows how expression can unite communities while creating dilemmas. It connects to identity, because users construct public personas, and power, because platforms influence visibility.
In an IB response, explain the mechanism linking a digital system to expression, then evaluate effects on at least two stakeholder groups. Avoid the misconception that digital systems merely provide new communication tools: they also shape participation, visibility, identity, and control.
