Masters of Media

Raving to Algorithmic Beats: The Hacker Class in Search of Novelty

The interest of the hacker class lies first and foremost in the free expansion of the vectors of communication, culture and knowledge around the globe…Only when free to express itself through the exploration and combination of any and every...

By Vladimir Tudakov on 09/23/19 0

Can we trust apps to solve our problems? SuperBetter – promises to improve overall conditions of health

Are you suffering from stress and anxiety, are you feeling a little down or did you just have a bad day? Among the vast amount of apps available, there is an app that can “unleash your heroic potential” and...

By on 09/23/19 0

App Store Killer? The Storm of WeChat Mini Programs Swept Over The Mobile App Ecosystem

Are you a “app for everything” type of guy? How many apps you have installed on your phone? For me, there are 85! Have you ever imagined accessing to all of these apps just through one single entry point?...

By Xiaoxuan Ma on 09/23/19 0

On platform aesthetics: TikTok as the next level of the gamification of social exchange online

TikTok has taken the place of being among the most recent cases in social media success history. In just two years since its global launch in 2017, the app has reached the number of 1 billion downloads in 75...

By Lukas Beckenbauer on 09/23/19 0

Framing AlphaZero: An infrastructural approach to A.I.

Man V.S. Machine It was in May 1997 when world champion chess player Garri Kasparov lost the now infamous chess match to IBM supercomputer Deep Blue. Deep Blue was considered the first artificial intelligence program to win a chess...

By on 09/23/19 0

Ceci n’est pas une Influencer; the rise of ‘Virtual Influencers’ a fad or the future of online interaction?

Not everything we see on the internet exists outside of our computers and in 2019 we’re not that easily fooled anymore, or so we think… Instagram influencer Lil Miquela truly seems like any other influencer these days; she has...

By Anniek de Koning on 09/23/19 0

Android 10, privacy and digital wellbeing

Google released, on 3 September 2019, the new version of its mobile operating system, Android 10, for now only available for selected smartphones. This update, “powered by on-device machine learning”, includes new features, among which are the dark theme,...

By Vânia Ferreira on 09/23/19 0

‘Quiet Ride’ in Uber: Technology Defeats Small Talk.

In May 2019, Uber announced that they have added the quiet ride feature. People who call an uber can now make a preference for the level of conversation they want to have with their driver: prefer quiet, or let...

By Cem Akca on 09/23/19 0

Video Assisted Refereeing in Football: The False Idol of Mechanical Objectivity

“When phenomena are variously reduced to data, they are divided and classified, processes that work to obscure — or as if to obscure — ambiguity, conflict, and contradiction.” – Lisa Gitelman Finally, the pseudo-objectivist logic of Big Data has...

By on 09/23/19 0

When platforms support emergency services: the case of Namola in South Africa.

People are increasingly relying on technology to improve their everyday life, and new media like social media platforms are progressively providing a safe space for those in difficulty. Smartphones have already proven to be a great medium when it...

By Veronica Fanzio on 09/23/19 0

“Dadfindboy”: How activists in Hong Kong are hijacking state tools of surveillance

Protesters in Hong Kong have flipped a tool of government surveillance on its head, transforming it into an instrument of crowdsourced counter-surveillance. Here’s how a popular channel on the cloud-based messaging platform Telegram has reversed the invasive gaze of...

By Eleni Maragkou on 09/23/19 0

Fooling the deepfakes: How we can outsmart A.I. in pursuit of the truth

From innocuous face-swapping tools to perfectly realistic doctored footage of global leaders and personalities: Deepfake technology makes it all possible. The applications of this technology are seemingly endless, and the rate at which it is developing is mind-boggling, to...

By Martijn van Schip on 09/23/19 0

The digital “gig economy”: empowering or constricting freelancers?

In the last decade sharing economy led to the blossoming of digital platforms that facilitate connections between clients and service providers. New companies managed to enter established industries and they didn’t do it quietly. Their approach is redefining actors,...

By on 09/23/19 0

Trick-or-Treating Dressed as Apple

Only with a mask was it possible for Romeo to disguise his true identity and enter the Capulets’ ball to meet Juliet. An unimaginable feat in today’s world of digital footprints and traces. With Apple’s recently announced sing-in alternative...

By Miloš Gavrić on 09/23/19 0

Quantum supremacy is coming: What does it have to offer in communication?

Quantum computing is the now the fever of the mind. Needless to say, there is a huge effort to make powerful quantum computers and this used to be the stuff of university’s physics department. But you can see the potential...

By on 09/23/19 0

Launchmetrics: the fortune-teller Fashion Week has been waiting for

Has Fashion Week become irrelevant? The question hangs in the air this month as magazine editors are replaced with Instagram influencers and exclusivity is lost to live streams at the fashion shows in New York, London, Milan and Paris....

By on 09/23/19 0

A bridge between worlds – Robots as a physical platform for the digital

Robots – gimmick or game changer? The current picture one has, when the words “robot” or “robotics” are dropped, can vary widely. While most would probably imagine either Science-fiction-like, humanoid beings or simplistic and gimmicky robots that are commercially...

By on 09/23/19 0

A Rhetoric of WeWalk-ing. Smart Canes and “feeling of freedom” in the urban environment

The new uses of smart technology are being constantly introduced, and unlike a cat selfie device or a cute planter that aim to add some fun to our humdrum existence, WeWALK smart cane attempt to make a difference. This...

By Berenika Balcer on 09/23/19 0

Surfing on the free trial wave – New app cancels free trials by the end of subscription period.

A new feature within the DoNotPay app launched this September and promises to cancel free trials before they run out and cost customers a lot of money. In a world in which streaming- and subscription services have become part...

By Laura Schäfer on 09/23/19 0

“Checkout on Instagram”: Chance or risk for e-commerce businesses?

Ever since Facebook purchased Instagram in 2012, the platform has not only grown from ten million active users to over one billion, but has also introduced a number of new features. Instagram Stories, live streams, television and shopping –...

By Selin Ashaghimina on 09/23/19 0

Will you find your next #1 Hit via Instagram? How the app’s new feature ‘Clips’ could make TikTok obsolete.

Funny clips, a lot of laughter, number-one hits and challenges with friends - That sounds very refreshing in times of self-presentation on social media platforms, such as Instagram. No wonder, TikTok became so popular and took over the music...

By Josephine Oettle on 09/23/19 0

Discerning Familiarity in the Rise of Facial Recognition

Facial recognition is ‘hot’: it has been in science fiction since the 1960’s, but nowadays biometric technologies – the technologies that recognize individuals based on biological aspects – are advancing and are increasingly being adapted by tech giants and...

By Sanne Kalf on 09/23/19 0

iPhone 11 Memes – Online Discourse in Digital Cultures

Apple has recently revealed its latest iPhone at their keynote event in the Steve Jobs Theater in California. The new iPhone 11 offers some new and interesting features, and marks a bold new look for its already iconic design....

By on 09/23/19 0

ImageNet Roulette: This mean Sorting Hat is not magic, it’s how AI works

ImageNet Roulette is not just another selfie app. It shows us why it is deeply problematic to classify people through “AI” systems. The debate around ImageNet Roulette is urgently needed: Around the globe, machine learning systems are popping up...

By on 09/23/19 0