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

Natural Cycles: Where pregnancy meets privacy

People use apps on a daily basis, or as Apple would say: “there is an app for that”. Apps are used for checking weather forecasts, reading the news and even finding – online – love. Nowadays, apps are even...

By Donna Wielinga on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Project KOVR: the Anti-Surveillance Coat that Protects Online Privacy in the Real World

From the 22nd to the 30th of October it was Dutch Design Week (DDW) in Eindhoven, a week wherein hundreds of new design projects are shown to the public. A lot of emergent projects can be found in Eindhoven...

By Lisanne Blomberg on 12/01/16 Comments Off

Who owns the playground?: Urban gamification and spatial politics in Pokémon GO

“Sydney park destroyed as thousands of Pokémon Go players descend” wrote Irish news website TheJournal.ie on the first of August. This is just one example of a situation wherein Niantic’s popular augmented reality game Pokémon GO puts a considerable...

By Stefani Mans on 11/14/16 Comments Off

In The Filter Bubble: How algorithms customize our access to information

‘Mark Zuckerberg promises to do more about the circulation of fake news on Facebook’ Dutch news website nu.nl said on 13 November 2016. This isn’t the first time Facebook has been criticized lately. The social media network has been...

By Stefani Mans on 11/13/16 Comments Off

Encountr: Sharing Experiences in a Media City

With the ubiquitous presence of new media in our urban environments, we can refer to the context that we live in as The Media City. Taking this concept as a main element in our research, our approach has been...

By Talía Cu on 10/21/16 Comments Off

Fitness tracking with TomTom: an attempt to regain market control

TomTom used to be one of the most important players in the field of navigational systems. With the arrival of google maps and other “free” navigators, TomTom was no longer the number one navigational device. TomTom was founded in...

By Lisanne Blomberg on 10/18/16 Comments Off

Chatbots: We’re Only Just Getting Started

It has been nearly six months since Facebook launched the Messenger Platform at F8 conference, but its main feature, namely chatbots, still continues to remain a hot topic in the tech industry. What Is All That Hype About? Truth...

By Olga Resetnaka on 09/21/16 Comments Off

Internet Moon Gallery: Art Moves into a Virtual Platform

How would you feel about visiting an art exhibition on the Moon? Internet Moon Gallery is a 3D virtual place created by Manuel Minch that aims to exhibit art using the wifi on the Moon. On May 2016, The...

By Zeynep Yavuz on 09/21/16 Comments Off

Decapitation? Here’s a wise old lady who knows better

Changing the minds of IS-fighters-to-be while they are searching for IS-related material on YouTube sounds like a contradiction, but Google found a subtle way to do so. This month, Google’s think-tank Jigsaw is launching an unconventional project called the...

By Odiel vandeNobelen on 09/21/16 Comments Off

Racial Profiling and Police Brutality: Can Safety Apps Keep Justice within Reach?

Racial Profiling and Police Brutality: Can Safety Apps Keep Justice within Reach? In this digital society, it is almost unthinkable to leave the house without a mobile phone. Apps such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are perfect for everyday...

By Alfrida Martis on 09/21/16 Comments Off

#CopyPaste – The battle between Instagram and Snapchat

There is a battle going on between Instagram and Snapchat.. but who is on the winning hand? A-team Instagram is a mobile phone photo-sharing, video-sharing and social network service. It enables users to take pictures and videos and...

By Arabella Memdouh on 09/21/16 Comments Off

Can Google Search Solve the Most Topical Issue in Fashion Right Now?

There’s one thing that most of us have in common: We all Google. So when the tech giant decides to break into the Fashion Industry, it seems to be providing an alluring set of qualities that deserve our attention....

By Talía Cu on 09/19/16 Comments Off

Tesla’s Autopilot Function in the Light of Liability and Assistance

One of the newest tools, that not only the multinational car companies but also companies like Google and Apple are assumed to work on, is the introduction of the self-driving car. Telsa has recently introduced a Tesla car with...

By Michel Blonk on 09/19/16 Comments Off

YouTube: From Video Sharing to Building a Community

What? Where? When? For some, YouTube is just a video sharing platform, but for others (such as PewDiePie, JennaMarbles, or Zoella – only to mention some of the famous YouTubers) it is actually a job. However, in order to...

By Bianca Andreea Banu on 09/19/16 Comments Off

Medical applications, the brilliant health-care helper?

More and more Medical apps for smartphone and tablet users have been released in recent years. These applications transform traditional medical services into mobile and digital services which people can evaluate themselves with the apps and do not need...

By Christine Cheng on 09/19/16 Comments Off

Microsoft HoloLens: A jump into Augmented Reality

Sci-Fi movies have teased the public for years with their in-movie holographic technology, which seemed, in our time, so far away. Think of holograms in the Star Wars movies and Tom Cruise’s home videos in Minority Report (2002). But...

By Sabina B. on 09/19/16 Comments Off

Bad News for Facebook

In the past couple of weeks Facebook and its content-monitoring policy as well as the changes made to its Trending Topics section made the headlines over and over again. These headlines have led to many opinion pieces and several...

By Ecesu Erol on 09/19/16 Comments Off

Facebook: New Tools to Help Business go Global

Facebook has launched several new tools for business owners to expand internationally, and a 64-page guide book has been made available for download, providing detailed data analyses on the potential and impact of Facebook marketing, global success stories, and...

By Yanqin Gao on 09/19/16 Comments Off

Virtual Storytelling in Journalism

Innovative virtual technologies are infiltrating the world of journalism. New York Times is one of the leading actors in creating this new way of storytelling, by introducing a Virtual Reality application to convey news stories through virtual technology. As NY...

By Anna-Karólína Gestsdóttir on 09/19/16 Comments Off

“I want to show you something”: Cinetree as an alternative to automated recommendations

A boutique among department stores Last year, Dutch actress Hanna Verboom launched a new video on demand service, Cinetree. It distinguishes itself from other popular movie streaming sites by offering a very limited yet carefully curated selection of films....

By Joep Bouma on 09/19/16 Comments Off

Can a new App save Democracy?

According to recent opinion polls, most Europeans do not trust their politicians. Nor do they believe that their voice actually counts (European Commission 14-19). In the last years, citizens expressed their dissatisfaction at the ballot box, as the frightening...

By Taylan Engin on 09/19/16 Comments Off

Now on Sale: Sleep and Relaxation

Sleep is an uncompromising interruption of the theft of time from us by capitalism (Crary, 10). We seem to be living in a time that is known for sleep deprivation, and many other activities that are being linked to...

By Guido vanderMeer on 09/19/16 Comments Off