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

What Juliet Didn’t Ask

Deepening the Motivations and Consequences of Facebook Aliases I was a freshman in college when Facebook was fresh off the server. The social network’s inaugural class has since grown up, and so has its Facebook identity. An established social...

By Kendall Grady on 10/02/11 Comments Off

Relationships 2.0: Social media – taking the distance out of long distance relationships

Social media has drastically changed the way we go about our daily business – this has been firmly established by now. Media scholars are exploiting (in a good way) all the possibilities and data the exciting platforms provide for...

By Ave Tampere on 10/02/11 Comments Off

How did the Internet change your way of thinking?

The Edge project asked artists, scientists and writers how the Internet changed their way of thinking. Specifically their way of thinking, resulting in a book with diverse and personal essays. Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia and Citizendium wrote an...

By Leonie Nijenmanting on 10/02/11 1

We fought the fight – and we’re still fighting- Wikipedia and Tek9.

So you’re thinking, ‘fight’… ‘battle’? What kind of nonsense is this guy stirring up? How can you fight Wikipedia? Good question. The only answer to that is yes, it’s possible, and most importantly, probable if you’re intending on making...

By Christopher Mead on 09/29/11 Comments Off

Save my Wiki!

I never thought one Wikipedia entry could go as wrong as mine has. Although it was quite easy and interesting to write such an article, keeping it turned into a true challenge. Yet, I am sad to say, it...

By Luana Pascu on 09/28/11 Comments Off

Adding to Wikipedia: Not too much of a hassle

Contrary to many stories I heard before attempting to make my first contributions to Wikipedia, the actual process was not that much of a hassle at all. I made three (albeit minor) contributions, namely editing two existing entries and...

By Jorrit Schaap on 09/28/11 Comments Off

“Programming is fun” Art++ book review

“Programming is fun” is what the artist and professor Douglas Edric Stanley declares in the book Art ++. This motto is not only an invitation to play but also the definition of the art-oriented programming. Art++ is a recent...

By Aurelie Ghalim on 09/28/11 1

Book review: Programmed Visions by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun

Wendy Chun’s Programmed Visions book is the third published in a software studies book series initiated by Matthew Fuller. Software studies is a relatively young discipine in digital humanities. Yet, it’s an emerging field, gaining momentum from the overall intrusion...

By Eelke Hermens on 09/26/11 3

Book review: Adrian Mackenzie – Wirelessness

A development towards the wireless is in full effect. Take for instance video game consoles like the Nintendo Wii or PlayStation 3, which make use of wireless controllers. Add the Wi-Fi for internet connectivity and the gamer is set...

By Bree Tahapary on 09/26/11 Comments Off

Book Review: opaque presence: manual of latent invisibilities ed. Andreas Broeckmann and knowbotic research

opaque presence instructs toward a mythology of suspended origin. Such a creation myth is necessarily one of destruction. Fully actualized, opaque presence could deposit the naked and the clothed in the Garden of Eden as a garden, an unbroken...

By Kendall Grady on 09/25/11 Comments Off

Book Review: The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry) by Siva Vaidhyanathan

I’m a so-called Google poweruser. Not only do I use the world’s biggest search engine for my daily queries like millions of ‘normal’ mortals do, I also use Google for my pictures (Picasa), my agenda (Google Agenda), video’s (YouTube),...

By Floris Spronk on 09/22/11 Comments Off

Book Review: Managing Media Work by Mark Deuze

Mark Deuze starts, in the introduction of his book, to argue that most students that follow studies like; journalism, advertising, games, film and television have lack of knowledge on managing their media work and industry. They know, for instance,...

By Daan Fliervoet on 09/22/11 1

Book review: Television as Digital Media, edited by James Benett and Niki Strange

Have you ever wondered how remote controls have influences television viewers’ patterns across the years, or how the original Star Trek series has forever changed production patterns within the industry? If you have, then the 2011 Television as Digital Media...

By Laura Burlacu on 09/22/11 1

Book Review: The Net Delusion by Evgeny Morozov

In his book ‘The Net Delusion: How Not to Liberate the World’ Belarusian-born writer Evgeny Morozov finely describes and critiques a delusion he calls cyber-utopianism: the believe that online communication technologies have the power to liberate, democratize. Many people...

By Sebastiaan Smink on 09/22/11 2

What cultural policy in the era of globalization and electronic media?

Cultural revolution has already taken place. What has changed is not only participation in culture, but cultural environment itself, characterized by such slogans as “culture 2.0” or “culture of participation”. Changes in forms of participation in culture (following the...

By Natalia Miszczak on 09/21/11 1

Book review: Enfoldment and Infinity by Laura U. Marks

What are the parallels and relations between Islamic art and New Media art? That is the main question Laura U. Marks poses in her book ‘Enfoldment and Infinity. An Islamic Genealogy of New Media Art’. The title of her...

By Stijnie Thuijs on 09/21/11 1

Book Review: ‘Cyber War’ by Richard A. Clarke and Robert K. Knake

Richard A. Clarke has worked for the U.S. government for 30 years. In the White House he served Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W.H. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Under Clinton and W. Bush, he worked as National...

By Maarten Jansen on 09/21/11 Comments Off

Book Review: KINGPIN by Kevin Poulsen

If you like police stories with persecution, infiltration and investigation KINGPIN may be just the right book for you. Written by Kevin Poulsen, it is an exciting story of the rise of one hacker to the control of the...

By Mario Gesteira on 09/21/11 1

Book Review ‘Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other’ by Sherry Turkle (Part 1)

About 30 percent of the Dutch are unhappy about the social support they get from their fellow citizens. A third of those wish they would get more visitors, for the occasional small talk, and 28 percent wish they would...

By Roos van Tongerloo on 09/21/11 1

Book review: Precarious Rhapsody. Semiocapitalism and the pathologies of the post-alpha generation by Franco “Bifo” Berardi

An infinite series of bifurcations, forking paths, choices (to be) made. Every choice made rules out other possibilities. But do we make these choices, or are they made for us? Is there a real choice? In Precarious Rhapsody, Franco...

By Martijn Dorresteijn on 09/20/11 1

Book Review: The Cultural Logic of Computation, by David Golumbia

How does new media influence the cultural development of the society and which influence do they have on the identity of a society? Which possibilities of knowledge to they open up and which risks are involved? The Cultural Logic...

By Jesse Oyegbesan on 09/20/11 Comments Off

Book review:Taking Care of Youth and the Generations by Bernard Stiegler

Marketing technologies pose great threat to the future generations – this is the main thesis of French philosopher, Bernard Stiegler‘s book Taking Care of Youth and the Generations. In a work published in English language in 2010, Stiegler begins...

By Mzia Kupunia on 09/20/11 1

Book review: Cory Doctorow’s “For the win – organize to survive!”

Cory Doctorow’s novel could be described as a thriller for the MMORPG generation. The author / co-editor of Boing Boing, describes a near future scenario, in which professional gamers in developing countries stage revolts, first in-game, and later, in real...

By Daniel Luiz dos Santos on 09/20/11 1

Book Review: ‘Voice: Vocal Aesthetics in Digital Arts and Media’ by Norie Neumark, Ross Gibson and Theo van Leeuwen (Editors)

I am sitting in a room, different from the one you are in now. I am trying to find my voice. (Maybe I should just steal it). “Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.” (Polonius’ advice Laertes...

By Liam Voice on 09/20/11 Comments Off