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

Wikipedia – Anyone can edit? Actually, no.

On the mainpage of Wikipedia.org you can read, “Wikipedia – the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”. I would like to contest this. I am anybody and I was not able to make a Wiki. What happened, you might ask....

By Gwen Keupe on 09/24/09 Comments Off

Wikipedia Edit Wars: The Web Encyclopedia as a Political Battleground

The United States is a vast expanse of landscape in which millions of people hold a myriad of differing opinions. Due to its open editing policy, many of these opinions have found their way on to Wikipedia. With high...

By Thomas Wielemaker on 09/21/09 Comments Off

Wikipedia and Social Networking

It’s easy to feel excited about Wikipedia when you’ve just created your own article. But soon after you publish it, the thrill seems to fade away. Wikipedia has relied on a participatory system and it can’t be denied that it’s been very...

By Margarida Fonseca on 09/21/09 Comments Off

Wikipedia: on the Value of Information and the Concept of Censorship

It’s a fact that people more and more gather information from the internet and other digital sources instead of learning -to master- that information. What will be the long term effects of this development? Does the posibility to search...

By Charlotte van Brakel on 09/20/09 Comments Off

The great power of a Wikipedia sysop

A sysop (as a system operator) is a controversial actor in Wikipedia. The term sysop means an administrator of a multi-user computer system, such as a bulletin board system (BBS) or an online virtual community. In the Wikipedia world,...

By Yu-Fen Chen on 09/20/09 3

Wikipedia And Its Contradictory Open System

Wikipedia is a frequently discussed Internet website. Some people are lyrical about it’s possibilities and future, where others seriously doubt Wikipedia’s credibility and its open “everybody is allowed to contribute” system. Even in the scientific world opinions differ strongly....

By Rutger van den Berg on 09/19/09 Comments Off

Social Networking with African Journalists

In the smallest room in the Balie, the Dick Scherpenzeel stichting, in cooperation with a handful of donors, held a debate on the opportunities of new media to link local African reporters with western media. Can Twitter, Facebook, linkedin,...

By Wouter Dijkstra on 09/18/09 2

Interactive Media Artworks for Public Space: Does Art Hold the Potential to Influence Consciousness and Behavior in Relation to Public Spaces?

“Individual bodies moving through urban space gradually became detached from the space in which they moved, and from the people the space contained. As space became devalued through motion, individuals gradually lost a sense of sharing a fate with...

By Liliana Bounegru on 09/18/09 1

Book Review of YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture

Show off your favorite videos to the world. Take videos of your dogs, cats, and other pets. Blog the videos you take with your digital camera or cell phone. Securely and privately show your videos to your friends and...

By Tim van Essen on 09/17/09 10

Review of The Digital Campfire – An Ethnography of Online Social Networking

Ever felt guilty about spending so much time online, browsing through your friends Facebook pages and leaving them massages on their walls? No need for that anymore, this is what we’ve been doing for centuries and it can actually...

By Gwen Keupe on 09/17/09 1

Michael Rush’s “New Media in Art”: A Review

In the 19th century the art world was shaken by the introduction of new technologies that threatened contemporary ideas of art and what people considered art to its core. Since then, there have been both major developments in the...

By Thomas Wielemaker on 09/17/09 Comments Off

Review of Media Dancer, Who Sets the Tune?

This is a book that claims itself a non-book at the very beginning. As confusing it could seem to first-time readers, Media Dancer, Who Sets the Tune? has a major flaw in the book’s overall organization and edit, which...

By Yu-Fen Chen on 09/15/09 Comments Off

Graeme Turner’s Ordinary People and the Media: The Demotic Turn

Revenge of the nerds: digital optimism, the ‘produser’, and the politics of blogging The Internet is the prime location for those in cultural and media studies who argue that the contemporary spread of media choices constitutes a form of...

By Geert Lovink on 09/15/09 Comments Off

Book Review of: Search Engine Society – Alexander Halavais

In his 2009 published book “Search Engine Society”, Alexander Halavais looks at the impact of the phenomenon of search engines in the everyday online lives of Internet-using citizens around the world. Search engines have become a widely used component...

By Charlotte Hendriks on 09/14/09 Comments Off

Chasing Away Ghosts: a Review of Brian Rotman’s Becoming Beside Ourselves

Q: “In the Far North, where there is snow, all bears are white. New Land is in the Far North and there is always snow there. What color are the bears there?” A: “I don’t know; I’ve seen a...

By Morgan Currie on 09/14/09 1

A Review of: Self-Organisation/Counter Economic Strategies – Superflex

This book is an initiative by the Danish artists group: Superflex. Superflex has been working on a series of projects related to economic forces, democratic production conditions and Self-organisation since 1993. Most of their initiatives seem to question the...

By Rutger van den Berg on 09/13/09 Comments Off

The Impact of ICT on the Print Media Journalist in Uganda

On 22 September 2009, I shall graduate from the University of Amsterdam, having fulfilled all the requirements necessary to attain a Masters of Art in New Media and Digital culture which I have been pursuing in last one year....

By Ali Balunywa on 09/11/09 Comments Off

YouParticipate: the politics of YouTube’s flagging system

My thesis is about a seemingly small detail of YouTube’s interface, the ‘flag’ button. I got intrigued by this function because of the politics that are at play behind it, hence the title “YouPartipate: the politics of YouTube’s flagging...

By Minke Kampman on 09/04/09 4

Locative Media as a Solution to the Crisis in Theatre

A crisis often foreshadows a shift or indicates a need for change. In the theatre’s case, the crisis is a reflection of undergoing changes in its form. Perhaps the general categorization of theater, performance and art needs to be...

By Cornelia Scripca on 09/02/09 1

Negroponte’s OLPC, a Star in Rwanda

His mother, Jael paid for the laptop in February 2009, but Collin received it in April this year. Collins claims the whole student community at the school right from kindergarten to secondary school got each a laptop. Each pupil...

By Ali Balunywa on 07/30/09 Comments Off

Blocked in Iran: Follow-up on Armenian Bloggers

Using the data and proxies from the Internet training workshop held at the Caucasus Institute, I did some additional checking and found http://www.havadaran.net/ and http://jomhoriyat.com/ also have been blocked, but accessible from Amsterdam. These URLs are found on the...

By Marijn de Vries Hoogerwerff on 06/17/09 1

Armenian Bloggers Confirm Top Websites Blocked in Iran

During the Internet training workshop held at the Caucasus Institute, Yerevan, led by Prof. Richard Rogers of the University of Amsterdam, sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Cloob, MySpace, Twitter and the BBC were are confirmed to be blocked in...

By Marijn de Vries Hoogerwerff on 06/17/09 5

WEX Machine – W139

The WEX Machine, The W139 EXtender, is a mirroring portal extending the W to the WebWebWeb. It is a new website and permanent installation for W139, an Amsterdam-based exhibition and production space for contemporary art, by Roel Wouters and...

By Erik Borra on 06/06/09 1

The Monitor’s Systems Connectivity

Gladys Buteraba works at the Monitor as the Helpdesk Administrator. The Monitor is Uganda’s other second daily newspaper (www.monitor.co.ug). It is an independent daily founded by a group of journalists. Currently, it is owned by East Africa’s biggest media...

By Ali Balunywa on 06/04/09 Comments Off