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

Why Venezuelans are ganging up on Old School Runescape to combat the effects of an economic crisis

As the economic crisis gets worse, some Venezuelans look online to play video games. By selling the in-game gold for real life currency, they make a living. Recently, the Venezuelan players of Old School RuneScape have formed a big...

By on 09/27/20 Comments Off

Free Trial Surfing or how to reshape affordances through institutional legitimization

DoNotPay is a company that announced a new app called ‘Free Trial Surfing’ which generates fake credit card details that users can use to sign up for free trials of (web) services without risking having to pay after the...

By Dimitri Koehorst on 09/22/19 Comments Off

iPhone Face ID: Privacy issues we should worry about

On September 12th 2017, the new iPhone X was introduced by CEO Tim Cook during an Apple event that took place at the Steve Jobs Theatre in the Apple Park. Due to its features, this smartphone is considered to be the most...

By Amber de Zeeuw on 09/25/17 Comments Off

Gab.ai: Freedom of (conservative) speech?

A few weeks ago a Norwegian journalist posted the Pullitzer Prize-winning ‘napalm girl’ photograph on Facebook. But instead of founding the intended discussion, he found his account suspended and the picture removed. The picture contained nudity, which may not...

By Joep Voorn on 09/22/16 Comments Off

From Chocolate Chips to Online – Creating a Cookie Monster

Project by: Daniël Landman, Nick van der Meulen, Nicola Romagnoli and Seastar So. Link to Final Project. Cookies are the most well-known form of online tracking and can be used for a variety of reasons such as recording personal...

By Daniël Landman on 10/16/15 Comments Off

Spy me, please!

A project, brought to you by Afra Suci Ramadhon, Alina Niemann, Kimberly Leerkes, Kyra Teklu and Radina Teodosieva The exhibitionist beginning Several weeks ago we were presented with an assignment - to create a new media project, intervening an...

By Radina Teodosieva on 10/16/15 Comments Off

Can Periscope (and live streaming apps) empower journalism?

Twitter’s launch of the live streaming app Periscope last March, was received with much enthusiasm by those who believe that it will empower reporting and citizen journalism. Live streaming apps are not something new. Few months before Periscope’s launch,...

By Afef Abrougui on 09/26/15 2

Throwing a Life Vest at Humanity

Alan Kurdi’s Photo. A photo of a boy, lying facedown on a Turkish beach, sporting a little red shirt and velcro shoes. This was the image that circulated the world wide web last week, becoming the latest example of...

By Ysabel Camus Favis on 09/14/15 Comments Off

Get Water! Have fun and make a difference

What if someone told you that by playing a fun digital game you could raise awareness to a current global issue, promote learning and education, or perhaps even help solving relevant problems at a local, national and/or international level?...

By Giovanna Salazar Ojeda on 09/18/14 Comments Off

Introducing Toosheh: The new mesh network application that tries to tackle the problem of information controls inside Iran

Branded as a little blue bundle, the new android application developed by the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California is a slight play on words. Toosheh which in Persian means baggage, endeavours to connect Iranian’s through what...

By Mahsa Alimardani on 09/16/14 1

Why questioning the code in Facebook and Twitter matters

The Internet has created more possibilities for the individual and civil society. Now they can engage in higher connectivity, collective action, and freedom of expression in what Robert Harris and Rebekah Heacock term as “the creation of social capital online.”(1)...

By Mahsa Alimardani on 09/08/14 3