Masters of Media

There within most personal computers are applications that resolve the divide between creative thought and creative application. Today, there are hundreds of such applications but few have embedded themselves so deep in the digital era of creative production such as Adobe Photoshop. As a part of a series of creative software programs delineated by their [...]

Internet memes (specifically image memes) have taken the role of a media format for civic journalism, ever evolving and reproducing cultural/political concerns which reflect our social condition. As an amalgamated entity, memes are constantly integrating themselves within social platforms as a form of satirical commentary that runs parallel with daily news and social issues concurrent [...]

The Atlantic recently published a stimulating critique in which music journalist John Murph questions the real legacy of Michael Jackson’s seventh and hailed studio album Bad. “If we compare the three albums Quincy Jones produced for Michael Jackson to the standard Hollywood movie trilogy, how should we view Jackson’s 1987 LP, Bad?” John Murph asks. [...]

I guess the Dutch population was quite surprised by the results of the 2012 elective campaigns. Although Emile Roemer  from the socialist party (SP) and Mark Rutte from the liberal party (VVD) were the major players at the beginning of the campaign, the campaign ended up in a battle between Mark Rutte and Diederik Samsom from the [...]

New technology is changing our society at full pace. Not only does it change the way people communicate with each other, it also impacts the way information is communicated to society. People are not satisfied with reading the morning paper or watching the six o’ clock news. They want to be updated on the news [...]

Last week, the documentary ‘Nooit Meer Slapen’ (No more Sleeping) was broadcasted on the Dutch television. The documentary stated that at 3 o’clock in the night, over 1 million Dutch citizens are wide-awake. ‘At home, night rest is becoming subordinate to online-life by Wi-Fi, Facebook and a smartphones underneath your pillow’ (free translation, Nooit Meer [...]

In the short six years since I left high school, a lot has changed. Facebook and smartphones are now transforming the lives of younger generations [3]. In light of the upcoming Media Literacy Week in Canada (November 5-9), I decided to conduct a small case study on “new media” education. Being a vast country, Canadian [...]

Sleek is an internationally distributed fashion and art magazine, introducing contemporary art and fashion issues in a thematically manner. Since 2005, the paper edition is published quarterly in Berlin, but because of its worldwide audience Sleek is only available in English. Sleek considers “the visual as the most important language of our times, and art [...]

Device reviews are not really the subject of choice on this blog. However, measuring the general sentiment on social networks towards a certain gadget can be quite insightful. In this post I will be examining the iPhone 5 through the eyes of a thousand Twitter users. I have compiled a word cloud explaining the most [...]

The context: Last week witnessed a turmoil on the Romanian online media regarding an advertising campaign. The latter belongs to pharmaceutical company Secom Romania and introduces Neuro Optimzer, a treatment based on pills that improves certain brain functions for autism, ADHD, Alzheimer pacients but also individuals confronting stress and anxiety. The campaign was releases on [...]

Why minimalist approach steps into our online life and what is the level of its effectiveness? We all have heard about the popular minimalist approach by now. Most of us have probably seen reportage on TV, or YouTube about some new-born minimalist throwing away tons of expensive furniture, equipment, clothing. Leaving the space super clean and super [...]

 We’ve all been there. That moment that you wake up, I’m sorry no – have a small panic attack, because your (social) network decides that three o’clock in the morning is the best moment for: emailing, telling you things about themselves by sms / whatsapp, or my personal favourite calling you because they forgot it [...]

Like elsewhere in the Middle East, in Iraq social media is a fast growing way of communication. Contrary to the situation ten years ago, the use of mobile phone is nowadays nearly universal. Internet cafes are booming and the amount of Iraqi users on Facebook exceeds two million users. During the Saddam Hussein dictatorship, there [...]

One particular phenomenon I’ve always been very interested in is Virtual Reality (VR); a technology created in the 90s that places the user in an artificial environment generated by a computer. The goal of VR is to create a simulation of a real or imagined environment which can either be used for education or entertainment [...]

Coffee has been at the centre of our lives in one form or another since the 15th century. When you think about coffee, many things probably come to mind. We use it to wake us up, to give us an energy boost, or just because we like the flavor. Most people have a pattern for [...]

In May 2012, the French chose Francois Hollande, the Socialist Party candidate, to replace Nicolas Sarkozy as president. François Mitterand lost power in 1995, and since then the government majority had been right wing. After his defeat, Nicolas Sarkozy decided to quit politics, leaving his party (UMP; Union pour un Mouvement Populaire) without a leader.The [...]

As a network, the Web is usually connoted as an open-ended, anarchic and non-hierarchic environment. Compared to previous modes of organization, its distributed nature is considered an improvement over centralized and decentralized one-to-many communications and productions.1 However, with the increasing popularity of Facebook, a site that recently surpassed the bar of 1 billion users, the [...]

The predicted outcome of the upcoming 2012 U.S. presidential elections is still very much subject to fluctuation. Polls are still changing on a daily basis, with the difference between predicted votes for Barack Obama and Mitt Romney only a few percent. Who will be elected on November 6th is still unclear. As we have seen [...]

The online shopping and auction website Ebay has launched a new and improved website redesign in order to expand its audience and provide the shopper with an ultimate online shopping experience. The new website was launched on October 11th 2012 in the U.S. and their international websites are due to change gradually in the upcoming [...]

The Pussy Riot sentence has become the unprecendented event concerning the global resonance, compared to other news from Russia in the recent years. 86% of the world mass media have covered the Pussy Riot case, media monitor NewsEffector reports. Most of them are US or UK-based, followed by European broadcasters in Germany, France, Spain and [...]