New Media M.A. Research Blog | Media Studies, University of Amsterdam | 2009

The New Vision Resource Centre and ICT

Godfrey Malime is the chief librarian at the New Vision. He joined the organization in 1992 as a trainee librarian. He went through the ranks to get to his current position. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in librarianship...

By Ali Balunywa on 04/29/09 Comments Off

Development Cooperation 2.0 with the 1%CLUB

Exciting new challenges and opportunities are emerging fast for organizations within the development cooperation sector. A paradigm shift is taking place in which web 2.0 concepts and technologies prove to play a vibrant and fruitful role in providing capacities...

By Kai Henriquez on 04/28/09 Comments Off

New Vision’s Vision Revealed

For the first time since travelled to Uganda for my research, I woke up with a purpose. I was invited to attend the editorial meeting at the New Vision Newspaper to meet all journalists. Editorial meetings take place every...

By Ali Balunywa on 04/27/09 1

Pifworld: an Engaging Graphical Donating Platform

A friend of mine informed me about an interesting service that was recently launched: Pifworld. It is basically a Google Earth/SNS – mash-up that facilitates global crowd funding. It allows individuals and communities to support specific projects in a fun...

By Pieter-Paul Walraven on 04/25/09 Comments Off

Media Students Embrace digital culture

On Wednesday 8 April, I escorted Ben to Makerere University Faculty of ICT. During our discussions with the deputy dean, we were introduced to the communications manager. After explaining our fields of study, I was requested to make...

By Ali Balunywa on 04/23/09 4

There is a snake in my computer!

On friday april 17 I met with John, who had set up a few cybercafé’s and telecentres both in Uganda and Tanzania. He has a university degree in mechanical engineering, but as soon as he graduated he started focusing...

By Guido van Diepen on 04/23/09 1

The little Big Belgian Firewall?

For the first time in history, the Belgian federal government has blocked an internet site. It is not a website containing child porn, but a website that publishes the whereabouts of (possible) pedophiles. The blocked website is similar to...

By Arno de Natris on 04/22/09 1

Ekimeeza, the Peoples Parliament of Uganda on Radio One

I arrived around 2.30 at club Obligato, where the massively popular radio talkshow ‘Ekimeeza’ was about to start. I was welcomed by a series of middle aged men, who...

By Wouter Dijkstra on 04/21/09 Comments Off

New Media at the New Vision

After finalizing the formalities with the administration, the human resource manager of the New Vision handed me over to the Mr. Ben Opolot, the Chief sub-editor. She made for me an appointment to meet him (Ben) on Monday...

By Ali Balunywa on 04/20/09 Comments Off

Book Launch “Digital Material”

Our appreciated colleagues, the Department of New Media and Digital Culture of Utrecht University to be exact, have their 10th anniversary May 15. And you are cordially invited! On this day UU’s New media folks want to reflect on...

By David Nieborg on 04/20/09 Comments Off

Peer pressure

“When Napster told the district court that it had developed a technology to block the transfer of 99.4 percent of identified infringing material, the district court told counsel for Napster 99.4 percent was not good enough. Napster had to...

By Bas Bisseling on 04/18/09 5

New Media meets old Media

I started working on my research proposal last year. By the beginning of this year, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. And that is to research on the impact of ICT use on the print media...

By Ali Balunywa on 04/16/09 1

The 45-Hour Flight To Africa

Ben and I booked the same flight to Uganda: Egypt Air. The flight was supposed to take off at 3.30pm from Schiphol airport (Amsterdam) on Saturday 4 April 2009. We were to transit through Cairo in Egypt lasting one...

By Ali Balunywa on 04/16/09 1

CBS: 29.000 Predators on MySpace

The Internet gives the citizen possibilities for surveillance. Citizens use these possibilities when they think vertical surveillance fails. Especially children are put into discourses of surveillance as if they are members of a vulnerable group, not watched over by...

By Arno de Natris on 04/16/09 3

First impressions on ICT in Kampala

On the plane from Cairo to Kampala I met a young Ugandan guy of 19 years old who just flew back from a tennis match in Egypt. He was a real cosmopolitan; he had traveled already all over the...

By Guido van Diepen on 04/15/09 7

TweetDeck: A Cyberspace Odyssey

Some people get very nervous using Twitter; they find the constant stream of (seemingly) unimportant personal exclamations incredibly annoying. They say: how on Earth are you supposed to keep track of all that information? Well, those people should try...

By on 04/10/09 2