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

How the Wall Street Journal made Facebook Inc. release an internal research

In the middle of September of 2021, the Wall Street Journal added an article to their ‘Facebook files’. This article surrounded Facebook’s internal research on Instagram and the negative effects it might be able to have on its users,...

By on 10/08/21 Comments Off

Screwing around and the value of alternative knowledge platforms  

Through the lens of Stephen Ramsay’s concept of “screwing around”, this commentary looks at the value of alternative knowledge platforms such as Are.na as a tool to counteract the linear and restrictive roads a search engine can lead a...

By on 10/03/21 Comments Off

Ecosia, the search engine for a sustainable future

What is it ? And why is this so cool ? Ecosia is a search engine, created by the German entrepreneur Christian Kroll in 2009 and was subsequently nominated the first B Corporation of the country. As a corporation this status...

By on 09/27/20 Comments Off

Where does your data go? Mapping the data flow of Nest

Introduction With this research project, we set out to investigate the volume of data created and shared from smart home devices. Intrigued by the claim that our homes are getting smarter and more connected, we aimed to find out...

By Aimee Dirkzwager on 10/25/17 Comments Off

rMA Thesis Conference 2015: (pre)Cyberspace Perspectives on Information Technologies

The following is a modified transcript of my research presentation for the 2015 Research Master in Media Studies Thesis Conference. My thesis is an exploration of magical writing practices in contemporary digital culture. This was too much to talk...

By Rose Rowson on 05/05/15 Comments Off

Scrapebox: a new perspective on an old SEO tool

Scrapebox is a versatile SEO tool but it’s mainly known for its comment spamming functions. The purpose of this article is to show that this software offers many interesting features that could be applied to academic and market reasearch....

By Andrea Fiorentini on 10/12/13 2

Memeification of the News

Internet memes (specifically image memes) have taken the role of a media format for civic journalism, ever evolving and reproducing cultural/political concerns which reflect our social condition. As an amalgamated entity, memes are constantly integrating themselves within social platforms...

By Joseph Jackson on 10/17/12 Comments Off

Retailers will go viral

‘Facebook Collections’ With a user base that has crossed the magical border of one billion users; 1 out of 7 people on this planet use Facebook. Liking, sharing, commenting, tagging etc., we are all familiar with these terms or...

By Daan Smith on 10/15/12 Comments Off

Google and the Principles of the Semantic Web

One of the first goals of the Internet was to expand the knowledge of the users by connecting different data. However, the contemporary web is by no means comparable to this initially academic network. The web expanded unprecedentedly and...

By Lauressa Ford on 09/10/12 Comments Off

Towards openness – A study about open design and its translation from theory into practice

For anyone interested in design, open source and open design, my recently finished (june 2012) MA Thesis is available for download here. Below is the thesis’ abstract: Following the course of web 2.0, user-generated content and open source software; design...

By Juliana Paiva on 07/12/12 72

I Want You To Want Me

I Want You to Want Me by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar made me think: it’s a huge, goddamn lonely digital universe out there. It feels like, as researchers (and people) we’ve just launched an exploration into a new...

By Natalie Dixon on 03/10/12 Comments Off

The Cyber Cafe Is Dead. Long Live The Cyber Cafe!

In the Western world, cyber cafes are nearing the point of total extinction, but less protected as say, pandas. However, many seem to find a new lease on life in the various developing – soon to take over Total...

By Daniel de Zeeuw on 10/31/11 Comments Off

The Public Sphere, New Media and Politics

According to Metareporter, a student blog for BA-student Media en Culture about new media in newspapers, a lot of articles in Dutch traditional media are about new media subjects. The top 3 tags that are being used are: Twitter,...

By Daan Fliervoet on 10/06/11 3

Mobile Tweeting – recognising usage frequency, tendencies and social interaction differences

The Question Academic research on Twitter has been rife since it hit off in 2006, with significant focus on two topics in particular- that of privacy and identity. Much that has been written by scholars of Twitter has generally...

By Christopher Mead on 10/05/11 Comments Off

The Future of Social Networking Sites

First of all, let me warn you that this week's blog post is a bit more personal than my previous entries. Furthermore, I also fall victim to relating everything I write about social networking sites to Facebook, Twitter and...

By Jorrit Schaap on 10/04/11 1

Social Network Abstinence

In this postmodern age, McLuhan‘s thoughts about medium as an extension of ourselves seems more and more accurate. However, if the medium is us and we are the medium, how we can detach from it? Nowadays, social media is one...

By Juliana Paiva on 10/04/11 2

Social Network Analysis: Considering Alternative Methodologies

The increasing extent of the Internet has also witnessed an incredible increase in the popularity of online social networking. Websites such as ‘Facebook‘ and ‘Twitter‘ are now the most frequently referred to examples although there are countless other social...

By Philip Breek on 10/01/11 Comments Off

The like button: Something mutual, nothing too personal

An interview with an average net user about the role of the virtual in her life.

By Demet Dagdelen on 09/14/11 Comments Off

6000 years of world conflicts online

Enjoy history and modern technology? Then prepare to get yourself time-sucked into the virtual world of wars and conflicts. Recently I have discover a website that clearly illustrates how isolated battles overlap and entwine into a never-ending strand of...

By Natalia Miszczak on 09/12/11 1

The battle between industry and ideology

Just a quick word on something that might sound obvious to all of us, yet is a topic that in my opinion is applicable on most new media discourses. The struggle between ideology and the ‘real world’.

By Renoud Netjes on 09/12/11 3

Iranian Censorship of Women’s Online Magazines

Although media censorship in Iran is a widely publicized fact, this research report seeks to establish a clearer picture of which women’s online consumer lifestyle titles Iranian web users are currently forbidden to view. This report was conducted...

By Natalie Dixon on 11/15/10 4

Twitter for non-profits, break through or break down?

Twitter provides a platform where grassroots organizations can build a new type of relationship with their beneficiaries, partners and critics. It offers a way to maintain transparency, but maybe more importantly immediacy. In disaster situations, it certainly helps when...

By Fei An Tjan on 10/13/10 4

E = Media Combinations2: The survival of the fittest

Every old medium was once new. And when something gets old we’ve got to search for a way to give it its old glance back. The printed book was once a new medium. It was revolutionary, groundbreaking. But today...

By Chris Hoogeveen on 10/13/10 3

Is micro blogging the future for writers?

Micro blogging gained a lot of success over the past few years. With the arrival of web 2.0 there was a need for a new form of writing. Long articles and ongoing features were not what people wanted anymore....

By Chris Hoogeveen on 10/06/10 3