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

Unplugging the cyborgs

While this week’s tech-press has devoted much space to the launch of yet another better, bigger and more amazing set of consumer electronics, it was a seemingly unexciting object with the looks of a humble notebook-charger passing by the...

By Sebastian Bertoli on 09/15/14 Comments Off

GOOGLE SYNDROME: A Psychological Perspective

Usually Google needs no introduction. But what it stands for is quite relative and as all things in life, it’s in the eye of the beholder. Thus, for my mum Google is the whole internet (!), for some tech...

By Nikos Roumeliotis on 09/10/14 Comments Off

Google Spreads Its Wings: Will Flutter Soar or Burn?

Flutter. The name implies flight, but it is actually described as to wave or fly rapidly in an irregular manner or to flap the wings without flying. However, a third way to describe flutter is that it’s the name...

By Vincent Sloof on 11/18/13 1

The Onion Router. Escaping the prying eyes of Control Society

Last week, first of October, the FBI arrested Ross Ulbricht who is the alleged operator of the digital drug network known as the Silk Road. The Silk Road is a website which is accessible through The Onion Router (TOR)...

By Wannes Sanderse on 10/11/13 Comments Off

Hacking the Digital: Fingerprint Secured Touch ID from Apple

The iPhone 5S is a revised version of its predecessor, the iPhone 5, and was unveiled to the general public last month on September 20th. Aside from various improvements and new available features, Apple’s new fingerprint-based identity sensor, Touch...

By Nicholas Vieira on 10/10/13 1

The Internet is now built on mass surveillance

Brought to light in recent months, the Edward Snowden-powered NSA leaks have publicized the wholesale spying efforts by US and UK intelligence agencies that undermine the very fabric of the Internet – turning it into a vast surveillance program...

By Nicholas Vieira on 09/09/13 1

Digital books: The end of private reading?

Digital books are touted for their new possibilities: portability, searchability, durability and ubiquitous notes and bookmarks, to name a few. But while readers benefit from this, so do third parties. The thought of someone reading over your shoulder feels...

By Larissa Hildebrandt on 03/03/13 Comments Off

Privacy? Who cares?

What is the first thing you do when you wake up? For a huge amount of students the answer to this question is: hitting Facebook, even while still in bed. On the 4th of October 2012, Mark Zuckerberg informed...

By Eva Valkhoff on 10/15/12 Comments Off

Google and the Principles of the Semantic Web

One of the first goals of the Internet was to expand the knowledge of the users by connecting different data. However, the contemporary web is by no means comparable to this initially academic network. The web expanded unprecedentedly and...

By Lauressa Ford on 09/10/12 Comments Off

TL;DR – Language Shifts in Social Media

A pedantic Semantic Introduction Media has shaped the language we use in conversation since the unprecedented invention of the printing press which allowed for the emergence of mass media. Content found in news feeds, published articles and gossip columns dictate...

By Joseph Jackson on 09/10/12 Comments Off

[Research] Trade Your Location Information For Security?

A Liberty-Security Tradeoff in Public Policy for the Location Information Technology in South Korea This afternoon, you might tag where you have been for lunch on facebook, or even a few minutes ago, your smartphone might update you with new...

By Seah Kim on 09/07/12 Comments Off

Foam Lab is Watching You!

Tijdens: Private Parts Vrijdagavond 29 juni Na het succesvolle evenement Deleted / Seen organiseert Foam Lab vandaag haar tweede evenement: Private Parts. Naast dat hier een bijzondere kans wordt geboden om het fotografische talent in jezelf te ontdekken, is...

By Anne Laurine Stadermann on 06/29/12 Comments Off

Interview with Elias Aboujaoude MD, author of ‘Virtually You’

‘Virtually You‘ is the book I reviewed some time back. It talks about the dangerous effects life online can have on our personalities and lives. I managed to get hold of the author of the book, Elias Aboujaoude MD,...

By Ave Tampere on 10/30/11 Comments Off

The How-I-met-your-MOM-Project

New Media Studies is a programme that is constantly changing, evolving and thus outdated on an annual basis. Its theoretical base is a solid one, its pragmatic learnings are however determined by the hegemonic character of the relation between...

By Jeroen Rijskamp on 10/28/11 1

App Review: PhoneGuard. Keeping Parents and Beliebers Happy

Designed with the noble purpose of preventing deadly traffic accidents caused by the distraction of texting while driving, the Phone Guard – Drive Safe application is in fact one new media watchtower for parents and employers to servile teenagers...

By Andrei Florian on 10/11/11 1

‘Consider it a safety Tool.’ – App Review: Glympse

Glympse is a groundbreaking new way to share your location with anyone for a specified period of time using patent-pending GlymseWatch timer. This app enables you to immediately share your location with friends and allows them to track your...

By Roos van Tongerloo on 10/11/11 Comments Off

You ‘like’, you pay! – Do Social Network Services Users Consciously and Willingly Give Up Their Right for Privacy?

Facebook faces more and more scrutiny over its user privacy issues, but do people willingly trade privacy as a commodity for using Social Network Services (SNSs)? Would they prefer to pay a certain fee in order to prevent surveillance...

By Andrei Florian on 10/08/11 Comments Off

Social Media: My concerns and why I quit Facebook

When I was just a little boy, there wasn’t yet a personal computer. Although we had a game computer (a Commodor 64), my brothers and I preferred to play with LEGO or Playmobile and we went very often outside...

By Maarten Jansen on 10/04/11 Comments Off

Children’s Online Privacy

Internet to me is a medium of convenience. The awkward feeling of being confined, limited, almost physically paralyzed, creeps on to me after being disconnected from the virtual dimension of the world wide web for more than one day....

By Jeroen Rijskamp on 10/03/11 Comments Off

Book Review: The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry) by Siva Vaidhyanathan

I’m a so-called Google poweruser. Not only do I use the world’s biggest search engine for my daily queries like millions of ‘normal’ mortals do, I also use Google for my pictures (Picasa), my agenda (Google Agenda), video’s (YouTube),...

By Floris Spronk on 09/22/11 Comments Off

Book review: Check in / check uit – Christian van ‘t Hof, Rinie van Est, Floortje Daemen

By Annet Bos on 09/18/11 2

PICNIC: Life in Readable Cities

Using public transport, we leave digital traces when checking in and out with our OV chip cards. Once our Bonus Card at Albert Heijn got scanned over the counter, we provide Albert with valuable information about what we like...

By Caroline Goralczyk on 09/18/11 3

Media art to teach the unaware people

My first blogpost on the Masters of Media blog should be about a topic I’m interested in., but that’s not as easy as it looks, because my interests are very wide spread. The reason why I’m following the master...

By Maarten Jansen on 09/15/11 Comments Off

4chan, Ethics and Digital Methodology

How much are you willing to disclose online? Do you post your phone number? Do you have embarrassing pictures on Facebook? Do you Tweet your current location? I think it’s fair to say most people have boundaries when it...

By Liam Voice on 09/13/11 Comments Off