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

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 Comments Off

United States of Facebook: new methods of online governance

As of June 2019, Facebook boasts almost 2.5 billion monthly active users (Company Info | Facebook Newsroom). If it were a country, Facebook would be the biggest in the world by a large margin. However, everybody knows that it...

By robert baciu on 09/22/19 Comments Off

A.I. Influencers: Preaching to the Choir?

As virtual influencers are gaining popularity on social media platforms such as Instagram, an increasing amount of money is being invested into the development of so-called A.I. influencers. Will such influencers cause a shift in the relationship between different...

By Dieuwertje Luitse on 09/22/19 Comments Off

Power according to Foucault

Introduction This article gives a short overview about several concepts related to ‘power’ from 20th century French social theorist Michel Foucault. He was highly influenced by Jean Hyppolite and Louis Althusser. Foucault is both associated as a structuralist and...

By Vera Seegers on 05/09/18 Comments Off

iPhone Face ID: Privacy issues we should worry about

On September 12th 2017, the new iPhone X was introduced by CEO Tim Cook during an Apple event that took place at the Steve Jobs Theatre in the Apple Park. Due to its features, this smartphone is considered to be the most...

By Amber de Zeeuw on 09/25/17 Comments Off

This is for your “real friends”

Tired of having to deal with that many people on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and what more? Enter Camarilla, it’s a social media app that will allow you to have up to fifteen connections. You might think “Only fifteen?! That’s not...

By Steven Gielen on 09/20/16 Comments Off

UHD Format is Coming

The Seven Kingdoms Seven of the biggest IT companies are collaborating to createa new format for Ultra High Definition (UHD) video.This collaboration is called Alliance for Open Media and includes companies such as Google, Netflix and Microsoft. There’s also...

By Pepijn Bierhuizen on 09/14/15 Comments Off

Functions of representation in a work of art & MMORPGs

Interactive Digital Art ‘‘Do Not Touch” is an interactive crowd sourced music video for Light Light’s song ‘Kilo’. The video was created by Amsterdam based art collective Moniker. Before the experience starts users are being notified that their cursor...

By Giel Veenstra on 09/18/14 Comments Off

From Anytime, Anywhere towards All the Time, Everywhere

Some of us might have noticed social changes through the intensive use of smartphones. The anytime and anywhere connection seems to make us overly ambitious when it comes to satisfying our social needs. Phone in the pocket, out the...

By Dominique Verschragen on 09/18/14 Comments Off

The Limitations of Protocol

Internet is often praised for allowing people to speak up and publish freely, rather than opinions are suppressed by higher powers. On the one hand, everyone has the ability to start a blog and publish whatever they like. On...

By Erik van Mastrigt on 10/31/11 Comments Off

The Administrator

The administrator is the boss. He is the ruler of his community. He has the power to alter his site, remove content or ban specific users. Basically one could consider him as the autocrat, the despot of the community....

By Erik van Mastrigt on 10/05/11 4

The Power of Electricity

Every month 2.5 billion pictures are being uploaded on Facebook by their users. The social networking website is referring to itself as the ‘largest photo-sharing site’ on the web. The instant access of information and data means that servers...

By Yeun Au on 09/13/11 Comments Off

Facebook Confessions: Pastoral Power in New Media Practices

Facebook, as a tool to connect, communicate, share, link, network and socialize, has become omnipresent in the Internet landscape. Its history starts in 2004, when Mark Zuckerberg launched the network at Harvard University. It has since reached over 500 million...

By Agathe Wiedemair on 09/27/10 1

Book Review – Access Controlled : the shaping of power, rights and rule in cyberspace

Access Controlled reports on the new normative terrain of internet filtering, censorship of Web content, and online surveillance. The preface and foreword are clear about what the reader can expect per chapter and also...

By Elias van Hees on 09/20/10 1

Book Review: Network Power – David Singh Grewal

Globalization is reintroduced to society in David Singh Grewal’s “Network Power”. A volume that contains so much information, it can easily be viewed as a contemporary globalization handbook. Grewal’s perspective is fresh and bold, albeit not empirically substantiated....

By Ronen Shay on 09/20/10 1

Sexuality and Wikipedia

Foucault argued that political power and coercion is not only exercised by our government but also by institutions which we don’t immediately see as political, like our education or our healthcare. I would like to add Wikipedia to that...

By Jelle Kamsma on 09/24/09 Comments Off

Justice vs. Power; Chomsky vs Foucault

Through Chris Perkins’ blog I found these great videos of Chomsky and Foucault. Recorded for Dutch television in 1971, it shows the two discussing their theories, being mainly the concepts of justice and power in these fragments.

By Twan Eikelenboom on 08/18/07 4