Masters of Media

Zoom Out, Zoom In: Looking at Digital Art Through Media Visualization

Introduction In May 2007, Beeple, real name Mike Winkelmann, embarked on a long journey of his EVERYDAYS project. Ever since then, the American graphic designer committed himself to an artistic exercise, where he created a new digital illustration every...

By on 10/04/21 0

Reflections on Genealogy Data in the Era of Dataveillance

Living in a highly digitally mediated world, it is of crucial importance to critically consider the issues of Bid Data. The rapid ongoing process of datafication, where most of the social reality is transformed into quantifiable pieces of information,...

By on 10/04/21 0

The Reproduction of Racialized Discriminatory Knowledge Search Engines Perpetuate

Miazia Schüler University of Amsterdam, 04.10.2021 In 2010, van Dijck published her essay “Search Engines and the Production of Academic Knowledge,” in which she elaborates on the increasingly growing influence search engines are gaining and argues that “digitized search”...

By on 10/04/21 0

Apps that fight against sexual violence: empowering the potential victims or reinforcing the rape myth?

This commentary selects the whole type of anti-rape apps as the new media object, utilizing Kitchin’s theories on data and relevant literature on sexual violence prevention apps, to demonstrate these well- intentioned digital devices have instead reinforced the rape...

By on 10/04/21 0

The Targeted Search for Screwing Around

Do you ever feel like there is just too much to read? Outsource the reading so you can watch someone's exasperated rant about an obscure rabbit hole you never would have heard about otherwise.

By on 10/04/21 0

Amazon: Bigger data are not always better data?

Most new media studies focus on the giants of the web, such as Google, Facebook, Twitter. They are specialized in search engines and social media and have accumulated tremendous data assets among their business. Boyd & Crawford (2012)...

By Shiyi Zhou on 10/04/21 0

For a Digital Humanism, New Media as a Pharmakon

This commentary draws upon an article written by Geert Lovink in 2008 and the work of Gilbert Simondon to discuss the concept of digital culture in the contemporary era.

By on 10/04/21 0

The Health Code System: or the Reinforcement of New Digital Mass Surveillance Practices

The rapid acceleration in the adoption of new technologies during infectious disease surveillance is not new, nor is it only applicable to the contexts of Covid-19. However, the outbreak of the coronavirus has brought a reality that demanded a...

By on 10/04/21 0

LONG LIVE THE DOOM SCROLL

A new phrase came about during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Doom Scroll. And while it sounds like a Dungeons and Dragons plot device it is a new phrase to describe our use of digital technology. It is defined as...

By on 10/04/21 0

Gig Industry and the Issue of Data

The increased use of Big Data in various industries has been embraced by solutionists as “a powerful tool to address various societal ills” (boyd and Crawford 2012, 664). At the same time, many are sceptical about the proliferation of...

By on 10/04/21 0

Instagram’s @browngirlgang: feminist research ethics, digital diaspora, and intimate publics

In recent years, public Instagram pages have become spaces to express, contest, and create shared gendered ethnic identities. Utilizing @browngirlgang as a case study, this blog explores the implications of theorizing such spaces as intimate publics while functioning as...

By Simran Tamber on 10/04/21 0

UrbanDictionary.com Impact on Language on the Margins

Abstract Using Clark-Parsons and Lingel’s margins-as-methods framework, this paper analyses the ethical implications and political impact of UrbanDictionary.com’s contribution to the shaping of mainstream understanding of popular culture slang. Following a review of the UrbanDictionary’s cultural impact, this paper...

By on 10/04/21 0

A New Frontier for Data Visualization: Political Campaigning on Social Media Platforms

Infographics, bar charts, projections — leading up to the German general election last week, social media feeds were flooded with a plethora of different visualizations in order to mobilize voters. Especially among young voters, social media has become a...

By on 10/04/21 0

Colombia’s Digital Mainstream vs Alternative Media

During Colombia’s national strike in 2021, the hard reality of power imbalance was once again brought to light. It has been left to Colombian working-class associations and the high class and politicians in the chamber of representatives to discuss...

By on 10/04/21 0

Big data, big dilemmas: Are we “slaves” of personalized marketing?

Data is the fuel of our Information age and can be used to predict unforeseen things about our lives. This raise concerns not only about the ethics of data but also the violation of privacy. From the real world...

By on 10/04/21 0

Can Smart Robots Manipulate Narratives On Twitter?

Misinformation on social media platforms has exponentially grown to a wide degree in recent years and the fabrication of the news is a significant example that has occurred in many recent political campaigns across the globe. Misinformation serves to...

By on 10/04/21 0

How Your Run is Turning into Amazing Customer Experiences for Nike: Data Collection and Invasive Marketing

Nike’s digital retail and fitness guidance apps are working together to improve customer experiences and create loyal buyers through the method of data collection. Certain app affordances by their fitness guidance apps provide relevant data which illustrate how they...

By on 10/04/21 0

From Field Recordings to A Future Recipe: Sensing Blockchain as An Infrastructure in China

The idea of using blockchain to revamp cryptocurrency transaction and data storage is no longer exciting. After years of test and development, blockchain has been applied to different aspects of our society, including fields like finance, public health, agriculture...

By on 10/04/21 0

The suspension of Instagram Kids and the exploitation of data

On the 27th of September, the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri announced on the Instagram blog that the project by the name of Instagram Kids (a version of Instagram that was designed to be safe for tweens) had been paused, yet he stated that “building ‘Instagram Kids’ is still in their minds the right thing to do.” (Mosseri). This break has...

By on 10/04/21 0

Has Facebook brought “The Truman Show” to the 21st century?

If we were to re-watch the 1998 movie “The Truman Show”, we would find many similarities with the world we live in today. Perhaps the most significant one is profiling people/users, surveilling them and collecting their data for various...

By on 10/04/21 0

Mobility for all, data for all?

Dockless bike sharing companies like to brand themselves as providing convenient, accessible and affordable mobility service to the public, but they rarely mention the importance of data collection in their business. In his book The Data Revolution, Kitchin (2014,...

By on 10/04/21 0

Big Brother is -still- watching you

Big data is everywhere. This term has been widely discussed on television studio sets, during political debates, on lunch tables, online conversations. But what exactly constitutes big data, why is it “subjective”, and why does it pose an ethical...

By on 10/04/21 0

The HTTP Cookie Monster: Internet Privacy Concerns and Social Awareness of Data Protection

In their article titled, “A Reality Check(list) for Digital Methods”, Venturini et al. present the compelling argument that the collection, analysis, and exchange of “Big Data” has become increasingly prevalent within media environments, consequently altering the nature of online spaces (Venturini,...

By Maria Vittoria Ravaioli on 10/03/21 0

FAKE ACCOUNTS ON DIGITAL PLATFORMS MAY RUIN YOUR RESEARCH. THIS IS HOW.

INTRODUCTION Using data from digital platforms to produce knowledge is booming in academic circles (Boyd & Crawford, 2012). It is an advantage afforded by the internet and various media on it. However, with the opportunity comes risks. One of...

By Issaka Adams on 10/03/21 0