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

Bang With Friends – are the ‘hook up’ sites the future of dating?

By Annika Kuyper and Jakub Dutka Bang With Friends is a casual sex app, launched in January 2013. How does it work? It is dead simple. The app connects to your Facebook account and downloads your friends list. Subsequently,...

By Jakub Dutka on 10/07/13 Comments Off

New Media and the Syrian uprisings: one student’s perspective.

Edward Said wrote in his book Covering Islam that historically the western mass media have exercised the power of representation over the (in this case) Islamic ‘other’ and suppresses the possible multiplicity of 800 000 000 global Islamic citizens...

By Jamie Franklin on 10/14/11 1

Relationships 2.0: Social media – taking the distance out of long distance relationships

Social media has drastically changed the way we go about our daily business – this has been firmly established by now. Media scholars are exploiting (in a good way) all the possibilities and data the exciting platforms provide for...

By Ave Tampere on 10/02/11 Comments Off

Chatroulette, no longer The Ultimate Online Experience?

In a previous post called; NEXT!Chatroulette; a shuffle through genital exposure and musicality I went a head and proclaimed Chatroulette to be an ultimate online experience, allowing visitors utter anonymity and random shuffles between users. Yet recently I returned to...

By ibtisam omer on 10/27/10 3

Educate Me in 140 Characters or Less

When packing your bag for school, make sure you have your lunch, books, and favorite Twitter client. The social network is making great strides as an academic tool, as more and more educators realize the benefit of fast, transparent...

By Ronen Shay on 10/11/10 Comments Off

Professional networking sites and social-economic status comparison

“Dan was apparent ﬁfty plus, a little paunchy and stubbled. He had raccoon-mask bags under his eyes and he slumped listlessly. As I approached, I pinged his Whufﬁe and was startled to see that it had dropped to nearly...

By Maarten Hoogvliet on 01/23/10 12

The different faces of Twitter

The enormous growth of the social networking site that is Twitter has many a person wondering. Suddenly every self-respecting website, newspaper, enterprise or person has a Twitter account, which enables Twitter users to follow. Even though the amount of...

By Charlotte Hendriks on 10/04/09 Comments Off

What Social Network?

Perhaps I'm jaded. Perhaps I'm a nostalgist. Perhaps Facebook isn't the most sinister CIA operation yet. But somehow, I cannot stop from thinking that the "Web 2.0" as we know it today is an accident of history, an effect...

By John Haltiwanger on 09/27/09 6

No.1 Social Networking Site: The Web

When discussing social networking sites and social networking as a phenomenon, why do we only mention websites like Facebook, MySpace, Hyves, etc? The web itself is a social networking tool down to its core. When the internet was created,...

By Niels de Hoog on 09/26/09 Comments Off

In Memoriam GeoCities (1994-2009)

Yahoo! will soon pull the plug on the once-famous GeoCities.com. The passing of this iconic Internet site is interesting for two reasons. Firstly, GeoCities (and its competitors like Tripod and Angelfire) were an important catalyst for the development of...

By on 05/03/09 4

Social Networking Sites and the Missing Half

Dana Boyd describes “social networking sites” as “web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3)...

By Ben White on 10/04/08 2