Masters of Media

In a fresh testament to how deep our affective relationships are with mobile phones, last week’s Blackberry out(r)age revealed users “breaking up” with their beloved Blackberrys on Twitter. Amongst all the (by now stale) joke tweets about the Blackberry server crash (What did one Blackberry user say user say to the other? Nothing…) Blackberry users started posting their Dear Johns…

This is an interview with blogger Vali Petcu, more known on the Romanian market as Zoso. In Romania, Zoso is considered one of the “A-list bloggers” and has been writing the most read blog for the last six years. New Media passionate, he has been involved in developing some of the early Romanian forums and websites. Although bloggers are frowned…

The Amsterdam Museum uses crowdfunding to fund the restauration of one of the biggest paintings of the Netherlands. An interview with Hester Gersonius about the implementation of e-culture in the Amsterdam Museum.

New media caused a lot of change in the music industry over the last decade. Comments on such changes tend to focus on general consequences, and overlook the changes as perceived by musicians and other people working in the industry. This text aims to open a door to an insider review through an interview with Amsterdam based musician and music professional Moos Lamerus.

All right, here we go. For this blog post I was asked to write something about social network sites. Geert asked us to think about what we disliked about social network sites, like for example Facebook. Furthermore he told us to think about what kind of research we were still missing on social network sites.

I Like Facebook

First of…

I grew up listening to Pulp.

I vividly remember lying outside my older sisters’ bedroom as she played Different Class from her multi-CD changer Hi-Fi, while I pushed myself up against her door, devouring Jarvis’ every word. Outside, unbeknown to my sister, I was recording the music onto a battered plastic tape loaded into my bright-red stereo…

Interview Philip Plotnikov

On this Masters of Media blog we have seen many app reviews coming by. These were all written from a user perspective. I thought it would be interesting to look at apps from the other side: the one of the developer. That is why I contacted Philip Plotnikov for an interview on this topic. Philip, Russian from…

I came upon an article today that said that research shows that Facebook popularity might be predicted by brain regions or in more sensational terms “Facebook may be changing people’s brains“. The research was based on 165 people: “One limitation of the study was that researchers couldn’t say which came first  –  whether large social networks cause thickening…

Some time has passed since the official launch of qwiki (see the Masters of Media Blog initial impressions). Although still in alpha, a more profound critique can be put forward as the platform evolved and opened itself to users.

Ning Hao, from Taiyuan, Shanxi province, who had studied at Beijing Normal University in Art Department, and in June 2003 graduated from the Beijing Film Academy School of Photography. Winner of “The Eighth Student Film Festival Best Director Award” in 2003, The Director of Crazy Stone and Crazy Racer.

You are tagged by the media as a…

A very powerful tool would be to be able to release information inside social networks that would go viral and be incorporated to pop culture by becoming a meme. There are many factors that influence the destiny of a piece of information that is released in such an environment.

At first, it is very important to understand how information propagates…

Interview with Co-Founder and Director of SellAnApp: Milan van den Bovenkamp

SellAnApp focuses on mobile app development through crowd-sourcing and funding and thereby gives everyone the opportunity to ‘transform their ideas into an actual mobile app’. Sharing your app idea at their platform is the very first step. Secondly anyone can give feedback on it and with enough confidence,…

When I was writing my thesis at the Theatre School back in 2008, I was really excited in doing research and reading more theoretical and academic work about the theories behind the use of video in art and theatre. I liked it so much, that I chose to follow the BA course of Media & Culture and the MA New…

Take a look at yourself in the mirror. This is who you are. Raw and honest, the mirror never lies.

Now take a look at your Facebook profile picture. Is this who you are? Or do we only get to see your best side? What do you mean with this photo? Have you constructed a new online-self? And…

The market for music has been collapsing since the up rise of high speed Internet access. Music is an elastic product that suffers under the effect of price and competition. The opportunities for users have changed and lean towards downloading. It’s easier, faster and less expensive then buying it at a store in the centre of most cities. It isn’t…

When I was writing my thesis at the Theatre School back in 2008, I was really excited in doing research and reading more theoretical and academic work about the theories behind the use of video in art and theatre. I liked it so much, that I chose to follow the BA course of Media & Culture and the MA New…

What happens when you knock on the ‘door’ of the Wikipedia founder? Apparently nothing, if you are Spanish language speaker. Compelled to create an article for ‘the mother of all wikis’, I assumed that writing about some hobby or trivial subject was not enough for me, so I decided to ask myself this question.

The next step in order to…

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the first few minutes you can witness a nurse being plain rude, using her mobile phone at some old lady’s deathbed.

Even though most of our parents have taught us the basic rules of how to be a civil and polite person, we seem to apply these rules in a completely random…

Where there are communities there will, almost inevitably, be researchers observing and studying them. Just as the Internet provides a refuge for fan communities to dwell, so to does it provide a site for academics to research.
Dr Natasha Whiteman studied two online fan communities: Silent Hill Heaven, a website and forum dedicated to the videogame Silent…

Voor veel studenten Nieuwe Media aan de UvA is Reinder Rustema geen onbekende. Naast het doceren aan de UvA is Rustema een oudgediende op het vlak van Nieuwe Media en politiek. Zo maakte hij ooit deel uit van De Digitale Stad, schreef tientallen politieke opinieartikelen, was zelf verkiesbaar en beheert hij sites als