Key Idea: A digital space is built: somebody chose who may enter, what may be said and what is shown first. Two people in the same space see different things, which no physical place does.
Paper 1
- Part a: define digital space, or identify access barriers
- Part b: explain how a platform shapes a place
- Part c: evaluate a platform's impact on a community
Paper 2
- Q2: explain what a source says about a place
- Q3: compare sources written at different scales
- Q4: synthesise sources on a city and a platform
Everywhere else
- Scale is the structure for any 'evaluate the impact' answer
- The four choke points structure every access question
- Economic: platforms rearrange physical places without building
Access has four choke points
| Choke point | Who controls it | How visible? |
|---|---|---|
| A device and the skill | Income and education | Invisible — affects most people |
| A connection | Providers and geography | Measured, rarely acted on |
| The route | Governments and providers | Visible — gets reported |
| Being shown | The platform | Invisible — nothing to appeal |
A plan that hands out devices does nothing about connection cost, and a cheap connection does nothing for somebody with no device. Naming which point your answer addresses is a mark.
Four scales, three dimensions
Ask both sets of questions
- Scale — personal, local, national, global. Only the national rung has a penalty of its own.
- Time — is this a shock or a shift? A tipping change cannot be undone by removing its cause.
- Reach — how far does it travel, and therefore whose rules apply to it?
Important: Decisions are made at company scale, harm lands at personal scale, and only national scale can act. None of the three can see the whole thing.
Exam-style questions
Examine the view that online spaces cannot replace public spaces in a city.
🔒 Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Distinguish between a blocked route and content that is not shown.
🔒 Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Quick check
The three decisions that build a space Who may enter, what may be said, what is shown first.
What has no physical equivalent? Two people in the same space are shown different things, so there is no shared view to point at.
The four choke points A device and the skill, a connection, an unblocked route, being shown.
Why is global scale hardest? Nothing above the state carries a penalty, so agreement is voluntary and binds only the willing.
Exam tips
- Ask “who drew the boundary here?” of any space question.
- Write “at personal scale… at national scale…” into extended answers. It structures the paragraph.
- Name which choke point a proposal reaches, and which it does not.