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

Is Apple our Online-Privacy Vigilante?

Abstract: Apple purports that its new Intelligent Tracking Prevention Technology integrated in Safari browser prevents 3rd-party cookies from collecting users’ data, therefore, reducing online ads, and ultimately protecting users’ privacy. This paper challenges this by arguing that ITP’s functionality...

By K. Abdulghani on 09/24/17 Comments Off

The Kakao Empire: The South Korean Example of a Digitalized Lifestyle

In South Korea, you can do everything with Kakao. You can send an ice cream cake to your friends, get updates about new mobile games, manage a bank account, call a taxi and much, much more. Although it may...

By Trisha Lee on 09/24/17 Comments Off

“Arena of Valor”: world’s top grossing mobile game is an auxiliary tool of social network

One April afternoon, I was lying on my bed and chatting with my friend on Wechat, suddenly, she asked ”Are you playing ‘Arena of Valor’ now? Look at my brilliant record!” and sent me a screenshot about her “penta...

By Chuyun Zhang on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Neural Networks: The Technology Behind FaceApp

There are countless photo editing apps available online, with dozens, if not hundreds, letting you change your face through the use of filters. So what is different about FaceApp? Well, this application does not use filters as we know...

By Andy on 09/24/17 Comments Off

“Clue”: Are period tracking apps reinforcing gender norms?

About 9 months ago a close friend introduced me to ”Clue”, a mobile application she claimed to have changed her life. It is a menstrual cycle tracking app that allows you to follow your periods, ovulation and other aspects...

By Yarden Skop on 09/24/17 Comments Off

‘M’ Assistant – a New Territory For Advertising

‘M’ is an Artificial Intelligent virtual assistant inside Messenger which aims to be helpful to its users when appropriate. M Assistant analyzes their normal conversation on Messenger and pops up to suggest one of the features within the app...

By Gergana Ivanova on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Goalpost in the Ozone: The Deceptively Good Intentions of #Climate

As far as scientific consensus goes, it’s tempting to label the ‘debate’ around climate change as being over. However, to do so invites complacency, a willingness to delegate responsibility to a far-off unknown authority. News organisations, politicians and activists...

By David Molloy on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Authenticating Authenticity: Entrupy’s Use of Crowdsourcing and Data Mining to Authenticating Designer Bags

Alibaba’s Jack Ma caused quite the stir in 2016 when he noted that, “The problem is the fake products today are of better quality and better price than the real names… They are exactly the same factories, exactly the...

By Krista Agbayani on 09/24/17 Comments Off

The Swipe Society: Tindoption

Has it ever occurred to you how much of our precious time can be wasted while struggling to create a family or adopt a child? And we don’t blame you, who does not want that picturesque family idylle. At...

By Emilija Jokubauskaite on 10/21/16 Comments Off

Paprika: From Anonymity and Self-presentation to the True Self

Applications such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Twitter are known by most smartphone users. When looking at someone else’s smartphone, you will most likely see at least one of those applications and it even gets suspicious when someone...

By Elsemieke Vermijs on 10/21/16 Comments Off

Volunteering at Hand

A critical alternative to matching the needs of communities Current events in the world, such as poverty, wars, and national disasters, bring forth a rise in volunteering organisations and activities. Therefore, it is surprising that in many countries the...

By Sabina B. on 10/21/16 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

New Digital Ink: The Terms and Conditions of Tech Tats

A future with chips implanted under your skin which track your health and makes bankcards and keys unnecessary might seem distant, but with the development of the newest generation of wearables – the so called Tech Tat – it...

By Arabella Memdouh on 10/21/16 Comments Off

Trading Location For Communication

Yik Yak: What Is It? Yik Yak is a fairly recently launched social media app for both iOS and Android users, introduced in 2013. This app, developed by Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington allows users to share their thoughts...

By Monique Varhaftig on 09/21/16 Comments Off

YY Inc.- China’s trending live-streaming app

Live- streaming has been many tech- enthusiasts’ dreams, and it was once a struggle to make this peer-to-peer, one-to- many online interactions come true. However, YY, starting as a live- gaming application, has recently reached a billion registered users...

By Joanne Lin on 09/20/16 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

Pokémon Go: A Blueprint for Augmented Reality?

July 2016, a cultural zeitgeist dating back to the 90s was unleashed upon the world with renewed and unprecedented vigour. Pokémon Go fever swept the world – at its peak in mid-July, it was estimated that over 45 million (Griffiths)...

By Rhubini Kunasegaran 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