We are Rosemarij Zeeman and Kirsten Leufkens, and both of us started the master’ s programme New Media and Digital Culture this year. Rosemarij with a background in communication and information sciences and Kirsten in interdisciplinary social sciences. This makes for a great and interesting collaboration, in which we can use our knowledge to complement…

My name is Melissa Blekkenhorst. After finishing the Bachelor Media & Culture, I started the Master New Media & Digital Culture. As an intern of the Data School, I am joining the Gab project. This project focuses on the fringe platform Gab, which is a Twitter alternative that advocates free speech and has become popular…

My name is Ruud Dielen, intern at Data School and student of the master New Media & Digital Culture at Utrecht University. After a bachelor in Media & Culture, with a focus on television, game and new media studies, I applied for the internship position at the research project commissioned by the KRO-NCRV. Within our…

My name is Mauricio Salazar Landeros, and I’m part of the MA in New Media and Digital Culture at Utrecht University. In February, I got an internship at the Data School as part of the Gab Project. Currently, there is limited theory from scholars on the fringe platform and even less data-driven research; this provides…

De ‘datarevolutie’, ‘data is de nieuwe olie’, men hoort steeds vaker grootse uitspraken over dataficatie. Maar wat kunt u met alle data die uw organisatie vergaart? En ook: wat kun u er niet mee? Data School houdt zich bezig met dit soort vragen en met sociaal-maatschappelijke en ethische vraagstukken met betrekking tot data. U kunt…

Review of the “Privacyrede 2019” by Virginia Eubanks at TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht, 16-01-2019 Although Virginia Eubanks describes herself as a “hard-won optimist”, it is difficult not to feel a tinge—or a wave—of technological pessimism when she lays out the devastating consequences of the automation of various social services across the United States. One of the first…

For “Big data Histories”, a special issue of the Journal for Media History, Karin van Es and Eef Masson interviewed the Data School co-founder and project lead Mirko Tobias Schäfer. In this interview he describes our distinct approach to research the impact of data and digitization. Initially it was lack of funding that pointed us…

In its most recent predictions of trends for the coming year, Gartner indicates digital ethics and privacy as a top strategy for companies. As the technology and financial industries, governments and even research institutions grapple with ethical issues raised through the data practices and their social impact, ethics starts to fill the vacuum left by…

You are cordially invited to the launch of the ‘Big Data Histories’ special issue of TMG – Journal for Media History Please RSVP via this GoogleForm Programme 15.30 Opening by issue editors Karin van Es (UU) and Eef Masson (UvA) 15.40 “The Database Revolution, 1970s/80s” – Dr. Niels Kerssens 16.10 “Unmasking Biometrics’ Biases” – Rosa…

by Lucia Dossin and Lídia Pereira Topic modeling, algorithmic clustering and profiling are common practices of social networks. Users are characterized by, for instance, inferring psychological traits though Facebook Likes. This analysis is then used to target advertising and steer user behavior. Recently, this practice has caused public outrage when it appeared Facebook’s ad profiling…