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

The Strawberry Dress, a VIRAL cure for the pandemic?

Amidst a pandemic, worldwide lockdowns, in time of sweatpants and cancelled galas how did a sweet $490 strawberry dress become “the dress of the summer”? An examination of the prolific spread of the strawberry dress and how ‘viral’ objects...

By on 09/28/20 Comments Off

Everyone loves a good story: immersing the audience with transmedia storytelling

Simply going to the cinema and watching a film just doesn’t cut it anymore. We, the audience, want more. We want a sequel, we want to look forward to seeing that sequel, we want to discuss what might happen...

By Lydia van der Spek on 09/11/12 Comments Off

Organization as a popular text?

What exactly are the major differences between a fan culture participating around a popular text on the one hand, and fan cultures based around brands or organizations on the other hand? This question I was studying in my Thesis...

By Basri Hoogstrate on 09/09/12 Comments Off

[Thesis] You Can’t Squeeze Blood From a Stone. Why ACTA Isn’t Beneficial for the Media Industry Either.

Love to watch your shows online? Like to create Nutella memes to get on the hot page of 9GAG? Want to rock out in your bedroom on Gangnam Style to put it on your YouTube Channel just like Keenan...

By Ineke Scheffers on 09/07/12 Comments Off

Twitter: immediacy and collective intelligence

When working on a Wikipedia entry just last week, I was confronted once again with the helplessness one might experience when the computer does not work properly or when the internet connection is down. Upon typing in the Wikipedia...

By Lennard Torbijn on 10/10/10 Comments Off

Does Facebook Rule? Ideas For The Future.

Facebook is everywhere. It connects 500 millions of people around the world. No doubts, it is an effect of purposeful endeavours of those who stay behind the success of the platform. It is becoming more and more interconnected into...

By Michal Kielbasa on 09/26/10 Comments Off

Social data analysis – Information visualization and participatory culture

Researchers in all areas of human knowledge are overwhelmed with data. Through the process of sensemaking, in which information is collected, organized, and analyzed, new knowledge is formed and further action is informed. We must make sense of data...

By Jan Bajec on 04/27/10 4

YouParticipate: the politics of YouTube’s flagging system

My thesis is about a seemingly small detail of YouTube’s interface, the ‘flag’ button. I got intrigued by this function because of the politics that are at play behind it, hence the title “YouPartipate: the politics of YouTube’s flagging...

By Minke Kampman on 09/04/09 4