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

Twitter Research: What To Study and How To Study It

A quick glance at the Twitter research bibliography compiled by danah boyd shows that Twitter is increasingly being seen as a serious object of study within academic circles; on the aforementioned page there are 69 Twitter-related journal publications, conference...

By Catalina Iorga on 10/13/10 Comments Off

The Truth Behind Twitter

Since its meteoric rise in 2007 Twitter has been hailed as a revolutionary service that was sure to change all social interactions and structures of communication. The hype has reached such levels that mainstream media actually report on instances...

By Onur Yilmaz on 10/13/10 2

Twitter, one big cocktail-party. Just go with the flow.

In stead of most media, I couldn’t use Twitter right away, I had to learn it. It took me three attempts to learn Twitter. The first time I started using it as myself, @lottewoerde. I tweeted things like: “doing...

By Lotte Woerde on 10/12/10 Comments Off

Twitter la #Revolucion

In doubting the power of Facebook and twitter as institutions that proliferate political and social activism, the The New Yorker columnist, Malcolm Gladwell says: “Social networks are effective at increasing participation— by lessening the level of motivation that participation...

By Agathe Wiedemair on 10/11/10 2

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

That Twitter Thing That You Do

So, Twitter. It seems to be all the rage these days. Blog posts about it seem to be popping up everywhere. Then again, a tool that simultaneously fuels revolutions and allows me to share with the world the mundanity...

By Laurent Hubeek on 10/11/10 1

Twitter as a conceptual frame

Most people think Twitter was “created” in 2006. These are the same people who think Richard Gere created Buddhism in the 1990′s, just before Madonna created yoga. Folks, like the sun, moon, and stars, Twitter has always been. This...

By Alberto Angelini 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

Thoughts of a Twitterer

The Tweet Tweet tweet – tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet – tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet Tweet etc.

By Fenneke Mink on 10/11/10 2

Twitter: a new dimension to watching tv

A couple of day ago I as watching a dutch television show, ‘de wereld draait door’ (DWDD). I got distracted by a woman in the audience. She had a lowbrow presence and was talking all the time. I was...

By Mathijs Voordenberg on 10/11/10 1

Radio Gaga’s Influence – 6.715.838 followers and counting..

Only 506 tweets resulted in the most popular page on microblog Twitter when it comes to the number of 'followers'. Lady Gaga claimed two months ago that she is...

By Elias van Hees on 10/11/10 Comments Off

Research Proposal: Implications of using Twitter in the workplace

Email has been great within the workplace. That is, until you start to receive hundreds of irrelevant emails a day. Then, you take one day off, and the next morning your inbox is a dog’s breakfast. So, instant messaging...

By Janice Wong on 10/11/10 Comments Off

Twart: Twitter and art

Twitter offers many interesting opportunities for interactive artists. While in many projects and installations participation by interacters needs to be requested, Twitter acts as an enormous database of the human psyche that artists can rely on for their work....

By Cendy Calis on 10/11/10 Comments Off

Fail Whale: Studying Discourses by Means of Twitter

It’s a bit difficult to study Twitter when you’re not on it. Hence I log in with the user account I’ve created a while ago, 18 months ago to be exact. Again, I don’t really get the excitement. Despite...

By Mareline Heijman on 10/11/10 Comments Off

Twitter: immediacy and collective intelligence

When working on a Wikipedia entry just last week, I was confronted once again with the helplessness one might experience when the computer does not work properly or when the internet connection is down. Upon typing in the Wikipedia...

By Lennard Torbijn on 10/10/10 Comments Off

‘What you’re doing’ is relevant to your followers on Twitter

Sure, Twitter had its impact on journalism, politics and advertising. If you’re a journalist, getting information fast and keeping in touch with your sources is easy. Politicians have found a tool to directly talk and discuss political issues with...

By Emina Sendijarevic on 10/10/10 Comments Off

While I see, I microblog

Microblogging, everyone is doing it, ‘normal’ people like us and ‘very important’ people like politicians, the Dutch Queen and celebrities. We share with the world what we are doing at the moment, or what is on our minds. According...

By Floor Broer van Dijk on 10/10/10 1

Love in the Time of Twitter

Malcolm Gladwell wrote in The New Yorker recently: “…This is what drives me crazy about the digerati. They refuse to accept the fact that there is a class of social problems for which there is no technological solution. Look....

By Natalie Dixon on 10/10/10 Comments Off

The Dark Side of Twitter

Amongst many for and against internet as a public sphere Paparachisi (2002) comes up with very important characteristic, I would like to focus on here. Namely, the potential of the internet to bring people from diverse backgrounds together, which...

By Michal Kielbasa on 10/10/10 Comments Off

Cybercascades in Twitter

Introduction After the attacks on September 11 2001 America started their “War on Terror”. One of the targets in this war was of course Iraq, because Iraq was creating Weapons of Mass destruction (WoMD). This “news” spread around the...

By Sander Jansma on 10/09/10 3

World of Tweetcraft?

The emergence of MMO gaming and virtual reality, especially the largest artificial worlds such as Azeroth in World of Warcraft, gave us a new way of socializing with people from around the globe. Twitter is one of the...

By Bart Brodzki on 10/07/10 3

Twitter Research Supported by Info Visualisation

Everyday users of Twitter users provide the world with us with of tweets on topics differing from what they ate, how they feel to what music they listen to. This is a great source for researchers who want to...

By Jidi Guo on 10/07/10 1

Microblogging = Micro-education?

Since the beginning of the Twitter hype, I was wondering what the value of Twitter is. Can we possibly learn anything from or through microblogging? Is it useful for companies to encourage lifelong learning? Or can schools and other...

By Anne Lukas on 10/07/10 1