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

Social Network Analysis: Considering Alternative Methodologies

The increasing extent of the Internet has also witnessed an incredible increase in the popularity of online social networking. Websites such as ‘Facebook‘ and ‘Twitter‘ are now the most frequently referred to examples although there are countless other social...

By Philip Breek on 10/01/11 Comments Off

“What are your religious beliefs?” – a question of if religion becomes public again in social networking

Events of April 2011 sparked much controversy as the French government declared the public wearing of niqabs and burqas illegal for the first time. The response to this was defiance by many in France who define themselves as Muslim...

By Jamie Franklin on 09/29/11 4

How Gamification Triggers Facebook in Being on Addictive Game of Sociality

I wrote a thesis about the new trend of gamification and specifically the gamification of the social networking site. With the gamification of the social network I am not speaking about the invasion of social games like FarmVille, but...

By Philip Man on 09/28/11 3

Book Review: The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser

The Filter Bubbler refers to the personalization processes taking place on the Web, which shape what content you see and more important what content you don't get to see. Big players like Google and Facebook feed you what they...

By Jorrit Schaap on 09/17/11 1

Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Media So Different, So Appealing?

As any illustrator should be, I am obsessed by visual culture, art, design and media. The way contemporary creative conception and expression takes on new shapes and forms, catapulted through the fibre-optic network and available for all to consume,...

By Martijn Dorresteijn on 09/15/11 Comments Off

The like button: Something mutual, nothing too personal

An interview with an average net user about the role of the virtual in her life.

By Demet Dagdelen on 09/14/11 Comments Off

Social networks + SEO = Social SEO ?

Sometimes the results of a search on Google, Bing or Yahoo are not really satisfying. If you search for specific terms sometimes the search results are very limited. Often only the first three search results give usable information. The...

By Jesse Oyegbesan on 09/13/11 Comments Off

TOP: Networks and Resistance

What are the role of networks in the Arabic revolution? Can we then speak about a network that is being changed from within? And what, in that respect, is within? The situation in Egypt became so chaotic that defining...

By Fei An Tjan on 03/09/11 1

News and Facebook’s ‘Like’ Button

One of the most talked about aspects concerning Facebook’s launch of social plugins was how these would affect the content and distribution of news. My aim in this short post is to briefly address the following exploratory question: “What...

By Catalina Iorga on 03/03/11 1

TOP: Egypt, Twitter, and Activism.

Activism and social network platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are mentioned together more often than ever. The 2009 Iranian election protest was nicknamed the ‘Twitter Revolution,’ and the more recent protests in Egypt are depicted similarly. The platforms...

By Kimberley Spreeuwenberg on 02/19/11 Comments Off

Twitter brings New Media student on stage with Imogen Heap

Thanks to Twitter, I (Janice Wong - cellist and New Media student at the UvA) was given a great opportunity...

By Janice Wong on 11/25/10 7

#You’re fired

Thoughts and funny incidents on… contemporary ways to lose your job ( via Blogspot/ WordPress, Facebook, Twitter) There are many valid reasons for an employee to lose his job: the pretense of economic crisis, the company closing down, the...

By Ourania on 11/01/10 9

Social Media and Revenues: Where’s the Profit?

The information economy that the Internet has facilitated has given rise to some interesting new problems for entrepreneurs and investors as well as webdesigners and creators. When your product is dislocated from material instances, how do you identify demand...

By Onur Yilmaz on 10/31/10 Comments Off

What is in your bag or what have you wore today?

A very popular group on Flickr is the “What is in your bag group”, where 10722 photo’s are placed of bags and its content and around 19500 flickr- users are a member of this group. When you are...

By Hanneke Mertens on 10/30/10 Comments Off

Facebook cares about our heartbreak?

Facebook has declared that they will stop showing your ex’s in the Photo Memories box (occasionally on the top right box, where the adds usually are). In practice this means that they’ve created an algorithm which won’t show tagged...

By Cendy Calis on 10/26/10 2

What’s got the Greater Manchester Police all aTwitter today?

Discard your police scanner, since 5am this morning and for 24 hours only, the Greater Manchester Police have been logging every incident live on Twitter. What’s got them all atwitter? According to their website they want to raise...

By Isobel Gorman on 10/14/10 Comments Off

John Doe is addicted to Twitter

From ambient awareness to addiction to the virtual world of tomorrow When your social life is only one Tweet away “What are you doing?” or in more recent words “What is happening?” is a question that can be answered...

By Ourania on 10/14/10 3

Pecha Kucha Night @Mediamatic, Amsterdam

Here I am, sitting on a couple of pillows in the front row of Mediamatic’s jam-packed main room. In just a few minutes, the Pecha Kucha Night Amsterdam Volume 15 will start. 12 presentations given at lightning speed (20...

By Catalina Iorga on 10/14/10 1

Twitter for non-profits, break through or break down?

Twitter provides a platform where grassroots organizations can build a new type of relationship with their beneficiaries, partners and critics. It offers a way to maintain transparency, but maybe more importantly immediacy. In disaster situations, it certainly helps when...

By Fei An Tjan on 10/13/10 4

E = Media Combinations2: The survival of the fittest

Every old medium was once new. And when something gets old we’ve got to search for a way to give it its old glance back. The printed book was once a new medium. It was revolutionary, groundbreaking. But today...

By Chris Hoogeveen on 10/13/10 3

Educate Me in 140 Characters or Less

When packing your bag for school, make sure you have your lunch, books, and favorite Twitter client. The social network is making great strides as an academic tool, as more and more educators realize the benefit of fast, transparent...

By Ronen Shay on 10/11/10 Comments Off

Research Twitter, Predict the Future

Twitter, for many critics, is seen as the platform on which a lot ‘irrelevant’ information, whether personal or not, is shared. Arguments of the presupposed irrelevance of Twitter are paralleled by critics who argue the possible predictive potential of...

By Xander Stolwijk on 10/11/10 3

The World’s Mood in a Box!!

"...A way to get a glimpse of the collective human consciousness as an extension of my own. Something that I don't have to continually check or poll, but instead, like a part of my body, it will tell...

By Laila Koubia on 10/11/10 Comments Off