Masters of Media

When Fiction Becomes Reality: From Black Mirror to China’s Social Credit Score

Since 2014, the Chinese government is working on implementing a new behavioral scoring system: the social credit score. Presented as an assessment of the ‘reliability’ of citizens, it combines a whole set of criteria such as consumption habits, records...

By Sarah Bels on 09/23/18 0

The Zero UI Music Player

One of the most iconic computers in cinema is certainly HAL9000 from Stanley Kubrick’s epos 2001: A Space Odyssey. With all inner workings hidden beneath a red light in a camera lens, the mischievous A.I. created an eerie atmosphere...

By Frederic Vosseberg on 09/23/18 0

Supporting Female Empowerment through Dating App Bumble

ABSTRACT – For all the single Juliets who are looking for a Romeo or for another Juliet, look no further. After dating apps like Tinder and Happn now a relatively new dating app has emerged: Bumble. Why Juliets...

By Savannah Fernandez Cejas on 09/23/18 0

“Be the Exception” for New Balance: Brand Surveillance and the Corporatization of Individuality

New Balance’s New York Fashion Week installation, “Real Time Exception Spotting,” combines surveillance and algorithmic technologies to celebrate and reward personal expression through style. But what does it mean for an algorithm to quantify individuality? And can surveillance technologies,...

By Hailey Beaman on 09/23/18 0

Reassessing the Viability of Cloud Gaming

Cloud gaming as a concept, as promising as it may be, has not been able to live up to its expectations. Having been around since the year 2000 with the launch of a startup like G-Cluster (Cai et al....

By Rama Adityadarma on 09/23/18 0

Skipping the Line or Skipping Time? How Foodsy Speeds Up Life

The new app Foodsy is an example to show how life is speeding up and how digital media contribute to this. Foodsy is an emergent app made for train passengers in the Netherlands which allows them to order food...

By Lisa Fluttert on 09/23/18 0

The rise of connected cars: telematics, carrots, and ads

The car culture, as we know it, is dying. Not because cars are going hybrid or electric, and lack of noise coming out of exhaust systems makes car lovers depressed, neither because they are “learning” to drive by themselves....

By Péter Fussy on 09/23/18 0

IGTV: The Latest Blow to Traditional TV?

On the 20th of June this year, next to an announcement that they now have over a billion monthly active users, Instagram announced the release of Instagram TV – also referred to as IGTV – in a video that...

By Julia Offinga on 09/23/18 0

Reading News From Knowhere in the Post-Truth World

Misinformation is one of the global risks outlined by the World Economic Forum in their Global Risks 2013 report. The world is grappling with the viral spread of unvetted information in a hyperconnected world. News media are implicated in...

By Darsana Vijay on 09/23/18 0

Facebook AI protects life from Live Streaming

In an era when everyone lives online, Facebook, the biggest social platform, adds constantly new tools for the user. One attractive feature is live streaming. Despite chatting and concerts that we are used to see, live video shows us...

By Anna Vallianatou on 09/23/18 0

Vulnerabilities in Car-Sharing Apps

Car-sharing applications, like Uber and Car2Go, do not really need an introduction. These days it is as easy to order or rent a car through an application as it is to order food through an application. But are...

By Vic Krens on 09/23/18 0

The MinION DNA-scanner: More DNA, More Data, More Ethical Questions

Early this year British researchers first managed to read a complete DNA profile with a small device, the so-called MinION, which is as large as a USB stick. With this breakthrough and the invention of the device, it is...

By Lieve Keizer on 09/23/18 0

Make-Up Metrics: The Downfall of the Beauty Community on Youtube?

Since its inception in 2005, YouTube has been host to an ever-expanding community of people looking to showcase their artistic and creative ideas on the platform. With over a billion hours of videos watched every day and with tools available...

By Erika Grimes on 09/23/18 0

Civil: The Savior of Journalism or Just Another Blockchain Startup?

Civil wants to save quality journalism using digital tokens and blockchain. Would it foment a revolution in the industry of journalism, or is it just another product of the entrepreneurial solutionism trying to resolve a complicated situation by a simple...

By Reza Mohammadi on 09/23/18 0

Is your personal safety app keeping you safe?

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports, “one in three women globally have been sexually or physically abused- amounting to some 800 million people world-wide.” One of the tools gaining acceptance among women to help prevent harassment is ‘Safetipin:...

By Kanchana Varghese on 09/23/18 0

Article 13: The End of Internet Freedom . . . and Memes?

Generally speaking the world of European politics and memes have very little overlap. However, a vote on the 10th of September in the European Parliament has brought together two parties that are traditionally mutually exclusive. Article 13 of the ‘European...

By Joel Ridley on 09/23/18 0

Don’t ask my name, just scan!

Say, you met a new group of people who are bon vivant just like you, and you spent a nice evening with them. Before you meet each other again next time, you wanna exchange your social media accounts to...

By Ziwen Tang on 09/23/18 0

IGTV: Instagram’s TV or Influencer’s TV?

On June 20, 2018, two major announcements were published on the Instagram Info Center. The first being that Instagram reached one billion users. The second was the launch of a new stand-alone application affiliated with Instagram: IGTV. IGTV:...

By Ouejdane Sabbah on 09/23/18 0

Spare Change Investment: Saving for the Future or Selling Out Today?

Millennials are a new target market. Personal growth, independence, and self-improvement are trends especially prominent with generation Y and Z. Right in tune, finances are following suit with budget, mobile payment and now investment apps like Acorns and Moneybox....

By Vanessa Richter on 09/23/18 0

Goodbye Cashiers. Goodbye Checkouts. Goodbye Privacy?

Imagine going to University in the morning. You haven’t had breakfast, but you missed your train, so there’s no time for that queue at Albert Heijn. Now, imagine how convenient it would be to just run into a grocery...

By Ashley Snoei on 09/23/18 0

Drones Floating to Freedom

On a warm August night in the Dutch summer of 2018, I went for a stroll in the heart of my new home: Amsterdam. Arriving at the edge of the center, I found myself surrounded by thousands of people...

By Daniël Jurg on 09/23/18 0

WhatsApp Killings: Affordances Of The Platform

In the past year, there have been multiple mob killings in India (Vindu Goel, Suhasini Raj and Priyadarshini Ravichandran). At least 30 people have been murdered by these mobs (Michael Safi). Why are these killings happening? The answer is...

By Carmen Ferri on 09/23/18 0

Verifying Facts in a Post-Truth World

In a digital world chock-full with misinformation, post-truth proclamations, and misleading headlines, it is harder than ever for one to fully trust the news. From that lens, it is safe to say that the spread of objective facts has...

By Mahmoud Badry on 09/23/18 0

Financial superpowers? Cryptocurrency and the next generation

Pigzbe, a digital piggy-bank has just appeared on the market, with one goal: introducing children to the world of cryptocurrency. Filippo Yacob, CEO of the company, claims that this device will give a new generation of children “financial superpowers”....

By Anastasia Pelini on 09/23/18 0