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

UberSocial App Review – Mobile Tweeting

Twitter’s official app for Android is notorious for its limited features and overall lack of functionality. Let’s face it – if people had a choice between the official app and using a computer, they’d choose the latter. Or maybe...

By Christopher Mead on 10/11/11 Comments Off

Mobile Tweeting – recognising usage frequency, tendencies and social interaction differences

The Question Academic research on Twitter has been rife since it hit off in 2006, with significant focus on two topics in particular- that of privacy and identity. Much that has been written by scholars of Twitter has generally...

By Christopher Mead on 10/05/11 Comments Off

Thoughts about the unveiling of Iphone 4S

Today was the official release of Iphone 5. Oops, IPhone 4S I mean. I followed through the NY Times and The Guardian‘s live blogs and Twitter. While I was overwhelmed with an incredible amount of data, #letstalkiphone quickly become...

By Juliana Paiva on 10/04/11 1

Challenging Time: Google Plus and Facebook Timeline

‘The most fun thing about going out is when you run into friends unexpectedly. With Hangouts, this sort of meeting becomes possible on the internet for the first time. Let your friends know you’re available and find out who...

By Stijnie Thuijs on 10/04/11 Comments Off

Diverse audience consumption of social media

I love statistics. I love seeing my Facebook friend count increase. I love looking at what songs I played most in my iTunes. (Unless it is an artist that is too embarrassing to love. Luckily you can reset this...

By Yeun Au on 10/04/11 Comments Off

How to do comparative media analysis on the web: Start small.

I’ve always thought that in order to understand a network, like the web, better, we should be able to understand as much of the objects and actors that the network itself is made of, as possible. Whilst finishing my...

By Demet Dagdelen on 10/03/11 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

‘Headdesking’ and Beyond: The British Uprisings

‘Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not...

By Jamie Franklin on 09/12/11 2

Getting data, sharing data and raising political awareness.

Using vision to amplify cognition. According to the Light Switch Theory, vision appeared on Earth around 543 million years ago and triggered the Cambrian explosion (evolution’s Big Bang). Before that none of the living entities could see and relied to...

By olga paraskevopoulou on 05/07/11 Comments Off

Why Twitter can be the Next Big Thing in Scientific Collaboration

Introduction Imagine yourself in the following situation: You, a scientist pur sang, are busy researching and analyzing A and you are having doubts about the values in the model, suspecting a technical error. Without hesitation, you compose a tweet...

By Sander Jansma on 05/02/11 8

Visualizing what is happening

Going through an older post in the MoM’s blog referring to Walter’s Ong book “Orality and Literacy”, I discovered a term referring to a new “hybrid form” of culture that has spread on the internet: The Secondary Orality. The term is emphasizing...

By olga paraskevopoulou on 04/21/11 Comments Off

treading on digital divides

The networked structure of digital communication channels was illuminated when internet and digital communication networks were shut down in Egypt. It was also at this moment that the nation-state aspect of networked communication (the physicality of the square and...

By Margarita Osipian on 03/24/11 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

The Exquisite Digital Corpse

Year: 1925. Place: Rue de Château no. 54, Paris, France. Characters: André Breton, Marcel Duhamel, Jacques Prévert and Yves Tanguy. Plot: A group of surrealists invents a collaborative storytelling technique called cadavre exquis (the Exquisite Corpse) named as such...

By Catalina Iorga on 10/18/10 Comments Off

Twitter: how it supports a fast spread of news

Last summer we had the Carglass-Twitter-incident in the Netherlands, which was caused by three Twitter-users. Two of them posted some negative tweets about the Dutch company Carglass and used the #carglasszuigt, next to that the third user created a...

By Hanneke Mertens on 10/15/10 Comments Off

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

Evolution of Twitter through Alternative Ways of Usage

Since Darwin’s On the Origins of Species the idea of evolution through natural selection has been used in a variety of disciplines, even in the field of media studies. Different types of media are born (being a technical invention)...

By Bob Nefkens on 10/14/10 3

Twitter as a Social Filter

Because of its simplicity, people have found many ways to make use of their Twitter account. On a personal level, by sharing their daily thoughts and things that annoy them, for gossip purposes, by following celebrities, or on a...

By Joris Pekel 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

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

Tweet, Tweet, Twitter Journalism

The role of the journalist has been changed, or some would argue that it is not there anymore. How is democracy functioning with all the social media around us? Twitter is a powerful tool for politicians to get in...

By Philip Man on 10/13/10 1