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

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

The Wiki-Elite

Sitting in class, I had just created my account on Wikipedia. Within minutes somebody had altered my biography on my personal user page. Luckily, it was the person sitting next to me in class who had successfully fooled me,...

By Erik van Bemmelen on 10/07/10 2

A Canadian Wikipedia Adventure

When contributing to Wikipedia it is always best to stick to what you know. The concept behind the world’s largest online encyclopedia is that everyone has valuable accumulated knowledge that should be shared, on what is essentially a global...

By Ronen Shay on 10/04/10 Comments Off

WikiAdmin: No Recent Changes

After being asked to write a Wikipedia article I soon realised that the challenge would not be related to the technical side of things, but rather to coming up with a topic. It was difficult to think of a topic that is...

By Marte Lindstrom on 10/03/10 Comments Off

Rage Against the Machine

Can you only make a Wikipedia entry if your subject has been covered in the mainstream press a gazillion times? How do underground, guerilla, new subcultures or artists get exposure on Wiki? Short answer: they don’t. I referenced the...

By Natalie Dixon on 10/03/10 1

Layar in the wikipedia – How to improve and secure?

The English Wikipedia remains more than 3,4 million articles, the Dutch Wikipedia on the other hand less than one million, so I thought it should not be difficult to find an interesting subject for a new entry on this...

By Layla Van Daalen on 10/03/10 Comments Off

Book Review: “The World and Wikipedia, How We Are Editing Reality” by Andrew Dalby

“Take any article on Wikipedia. Who wrote it? Where did it come from? Now take a closer look at those unconvincing, badly written sentences in the middle. Why did someone add them? How long will it be before someone...

By Ekaterina Yudin on 09/23/10 Comments Off

‘Useless Content’ – Part 2

This week assignment for New Media Practices was writing an Wikipedia entry. Although this clarified a lot about Wikipedia and its policies, the job caused me a lot of frustration. I wrote an entry about the Brazilian NGO I...

By ellen sluis on 09/22/09 Comments Off

‘Useless Content’ – Part 1

‘Wikipedia is not a valid source’. That’s a common critique on the online encyclopedia. Erin Harty from the University of Idaho stresses that the information on Wikipedia doesn’t have any academic background and that it ‘is not really an...

By ellen sluis on 09/22/09 Comments Off

The semantic web versus Wikipedia?

From the day of birth of the Wikipedia project, the online encyclopedia has been a highly controversial case. The debates range from information accuracy (including the inquiry of the information-knowledge relation once again) to the pyramidic usermodel (often undermined...

By Sjoerd Tuinema on 09/21/09 1

Wikipedia changes our perception of knowledge

Wikipedia differs greatly with the traditional encyclopedia. Examples of aspects of differentiation: · Broader public: knowledge is for everyone. · Authority: everyone can write for Wikipedia. · Broader range of subjects: everyone can decide what is important to be...

By Suzanne Schram on 09/21/09 Comments Off