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

The Rise of the Emoji’s. Final goal: World Domination.

It seems almost impossible, a life without these creative, colourful and sometimes confusing characters. There is no easier way of texting – even for those who aren’t used to modern smartphones – and it seems like...

By Mintsje deWitte on 09/22/16 Comments Off

Discovery in a Snap

Imagine if I took a polaroid of myself, let you see it, and then after (maximum) ten seconds took it away from you. You might find that strange, annoying even. Then, imagine if I, or your favourite brand (Adidas)...

By Kat Milligan 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

Activism via social media is only a digital graffiti?

Recently it has become an online trend to be socially active and involved in public issues. This kind of activism is thriving: like if you care. Immediately there are hundreds/thousands/million likes and comments under a post that suggests supporting...

By Lina Ku_inskaite on 09/20/16 Comments Off

Clinton’s campaign app – play for presidency

Traditional campaigning is not enough anymore – politicians need to follow technological trends. Fittingly, the Hillary Clinton campaign developed its own app for the upcoming US presidential elections. Launched this July, “Hillary 2016” lets users compete challenges in their personalized...

By Vincent Buss 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

PeerRevYOU: A Tool for Media Students

Presenting to you: PeerRevYOU, a peer review platform for Media students. Thanks to this tool, students are able to review each other’s work before they hand it in to their teacher. We argue that this process could improve...

By Lisanne Buijze on 10/16/15 Comments Off

Putting the Face back in Facebook

“Mark Zuckerberg is promising Facebook users a new button to express an emotion other than “like”. It’s being referred to as a “dislike” button, though Zuckerberg says it’s going to be a tool to express empathy, rather than contempt.”...

By Atossa Atabaki on 10/15/15 Comments Off

They tried to make me go to Talkspace I said, “no,no,no”.

Introducing Talkspace, the budding therapy app that claims to accommodate the ‘on demand’, ‘on the go’, ‘in the know’ culture. Therapy in the modern world. Ironically the need to be mindful has become an inevitable trend, digital...

By Kyra Teklu on 09/17/15 Comments Off

The end of Secret, the end of anonymous social media apps?

How to stay anonymous on the web? It sounds like a trick question when the web constantly tracks your online behaviour and requires you to upload a user account on nearly every website you visit. However, the solution seems...

By Laura Nusser on 09/16/15 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

Training Wheels

As one of the cultural capitals of Europe, thousands of international students (2,000 at the University of Amsterdam alone), new residents and tourists convene in Amsterdam every year. Unfortunately, not everyone who comes to Amsterdam has the typical Dutch...

By Auke Akkerman on 10/17/14 Comments Off

The posthuman cyborg: Technological telepathy

Researches have recently published an article where they have done an experiment with some kind of technological telepathy. A man in India wearing a BCI (Brain-Computer Interface), has successfully transmitted different kind of words through thoughts to a man’s...

By Chaïm Wijnberg on 09/18/14 Comments Off

Could Snapchat’s new feature challenge Facebook’s dominance in terms of trust and privacy?

What’s the next Facebook or is there one? Ask many, including John D. Sutter (2012), who suggests that this question is not only wishful thinking, but an increasingly likely reality. Jamie Turner argues that although Facebook is still “king...

By Agnieszka Walewinder on 09/18/14 Comments Off

Social Media interactions as a way to success in travel blogging

Nowadays, blogging is a rapidly evolving form of media. 77% of Internet users read blogs and there are twice as many more bloggers today than there were in the previous year, shows Social Media Today. According to BestWebHostingGeek.com, there...

By Agnieszka Walewinder on 09/11/14 Comments Off

One Word May Become Revolutionary in Media

Media as a form of communication has become ubiquitous within modern society. Platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Youtube are often considered a part of daily-life and allow users express their own thoughts and opinions to readers, friends, followers...

By Sage Stargrove on 09/11/14 Comments Off

Citizens take back the power

Journalism, Once a profession filled with bureaucracy and governed by large multinational companies, is now more and more falling into the hands of the average citizens. A change that is fueled by ever growing advancements in the field of...

By Thomas Hardiman on 09/09/14 Comments Off

MOOCs – A driver for innovation in teaching?

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) – free and open online courses offered by worldwide leading Universities have attracted much attention (one might even say social panic) amongst higher education (HE) circles and beyond since their rising popularity in 2012. For many here there was not only aseemingly radically...

By Sebastian Bertoli on 09/08/14 Comments Off

Understanding New Media – a quick overview

By exploring the intersection of computing science, humanities and visual and performing art, new media is exploring its own path towards a science status. If the new media is affecting the way society behaves, we should try to...

By Caio Domingues on 09/08/14 Comments Off

Tangible Data Visualizations

We live in a world of three dimensions (alright 4, and a spattering of more depending on which school of quantum theory you adhere to). However, when it comes to visualizing data, the results are surprisingly 2-dimensional, and mostly...

By Philip Anderson on 04/22/14 1

Re-visiting 90s media theory: The Media Archive by ADILKNO

Alexandra Kontou, Caroline Boserup, Jakub Dutka ADILKNO / BILWET (Foundation for the Advancement of Illegal Knowledge / Stichting tot Bevordering van Illegale Wetenschap ) was founded in 1983 as a collective of five artists/authors, Geert Lovink, Arjen Mulder,...

By Jakub Dutka on 03/21/14 Comments Off

8tracks and web-radios: the contemporary music consumption is personal and social

Since the growth of the Internet and its collection of interactive platforms and social networks, the cultural industry has turned a critical corner. This statement is especially true for the music industry in term of music creation and consumption,...

By V Weydert on 10/31/13 Comments Off

Ideas worth spreading… Is the TED Blog worthwhile?

TED.com is best known for its videos of talks given by experts and up-and-comers in the fields of Technology, Education and Design. Since its inception as a global set of conferences, the TED brand has branched off into many...

By Susan Clandillon on 10/10/13 Comments Off

We Are Dread: A Review of the Dread Exhibition at De Hallen, Haarlem

By Lani Shadduck & Lucy Chinen “Dread trembles in my pocket. Dread chirps incessantly. Dread flashes and bounces. Dread summons me a hundred times a day to pay attention to my phone or my laptop, and stiffening...

By Lani Shadduck on 10/09/13 Comments Off