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

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

Twitter Chatter and Stock Market Trends

Social media as trend indicators It is not uncommon that when “social media networks” are mentioned, the most common associations among people are with platforms that promote interaction with, and sharing and exchange of user-generated content. With its exponential...

By Audrika Rakshit on 10/15/12 2

[Interview] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – “Content is a king, not a Cinderella”

Many people still think they can manipulate search engines in order to get top rankings. A well-known example is the campaign against George Bush, when a lot of websites and blogs linked George’s Bush page with the key words...

By Mihaela Naftanaila on 10/15/12 3

Review: Location-based app Placeling makes everyone a tour guide

By: Larissa Hildebrandt and Vincentiu Dinga Placeling is a free iPhone app and WordPress plugin. It is a location-based social network where you can share your favourite places. Users are encouraged to “be the guide” in their city by bookmarking locations...

By Larissa Hildebrandt on 10/04/12 Comments Off

Book Review: Media Life by Mark Deuze

“media are to us as water is to fish.” By Seah KIM and Mihaela Naftanaila This is the way Mark Deuze starts his new book Media Life, which he presented last Thursday evening at...

By Seah Kim on 10/01/12 Comments Off

Unlike Us Conference – Understanding Social Media Monopolies and their Alternatives

For many people, looking at Facebook is the first thing they do when they wake up. There are about 600 million users on Facebook, and you might as well say that Facebook – together with other SNS like Twitter...

By Serena Westra on 09/11/12 1

TL;DR – Language Shifts in Social Media

A pedantic Semantic Introduction Media has shaped the language we use in conversation since the unprecedented invention of the printing press which allowed for the emergence of mass media. Content found in news feeds, published articles and gossip columns dictate...

By Joseph Jackson on 09/10/12 Comments Off

[Essay] How New Media reshapes the music industry

I imagine myself at 14 years old winding the tapes back and forward with a pen and listening to Metallica for the hundredth time. Well, nothing else mattered at that time. Most Romanian around their 30thies grew up with...

By Mihaela Naftanaila on 09/08/12 Comments Off

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

Twitter vs. Established Media: Gatewatching, Information Dissemination and #OccupyLSX

A summary of paper presented at the DMI Winter School Mini-Conference, Amsterdam (January 2012) Abstract: Twitter is a social media platform where users’ messages can take flight, gain elevation (RT function), achieve direction (@ function), and be grouped together...

By Liam Voice on 02/24/12 Comments Off

Exit Through the Webshop

The following is an interview with the founder of dutchdamage, Matthijs van der Meulen, currently head of the digital media department at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Q: How did Dutchdamage come into being? A: In 1996 I started taking...

By Martijn Dorresteijn on 11/04/11 Comments Off

On the Nature and Culture of Photography

The praxis and technology of photography has seen dramatic transformations over the last century. The most obvious transformations taking place in the last decade of the 20th century, marking the shift from analog to digital photography. Yet another shift...

By Martijn Dorresteijn on 11/02/11 4

Thanks For Sharing; Gratitude to Social Recommendation and Cool Friends

“Knowledge sharing and creation is at the heart of innovation in all fields – science, art and business – and innovation is the driving force for wealth creation... Information can be transferred in great torrents, without any understanding or...

By Autumn Hand on 11/01/11 Comments Off

Citizen Journalism in the South Caucasus

The fate of professional journalism in condition of rising number of citizen journalists has become a subject of discussion among media scholars. Some suggest that citizen journalism will kill journalism as a profession. This issue is relevant in South...

By Mzia Kupunia on 10/31/11 Comments Off