#Instalife: How Instagram redefines the meaning and practice of photography

Instagram is a social, mobile photography app. They have 100 million monthly active users, and 40 million Instagram photos are posted per day. Purchased by the leviathan of social media that is Facebook in 2012, Instagram seems to be some kind of "big deal". From a commercial perspective, Instagram is an immensely easy-t0-use and popular … Continue reading #Instalife: How Instagram redefines the meaning and practice of photography

#Ivoted: Documenting the Vote in the 2012 Elections

In the lengthy and involved media spectacle surrounding the 2012 elections, the day of reckoning is of course voting day. Traditionally, media messaging switches from heated horse-race coverage to “neutral” coverage encouraging people to get out and vote, with live coverage of lines at polls and providing information on polling locations. This year witnessed an … Continue reading #Ivoted: Documenting the Vote in the 2012 Elections

Practices of political news production and consumption on Facebook’s news feed

Since its beginning, the Internet's potential to disseminate information broadly and easily has been hailed as a great democratizing force. Today, this idealist vision has somewhat deteriorated, with some arguing that the Internet creates “echo-chambers” and "filter bubbles" of like-minded people who can choose to only engage with material that agrees with them, and preventing people from being active … Continue reading Practices of political news production and consumption on Facebook’s news feed

William James on the “Like” Button

“Will you or won't you have it so?” is the most probing question we are ever asked; we are asked it every hour of the day, and about the largest as well as the smallest, the most theoretical as well as the most practical, things. We answer by consents or non-consents and not by words. What wonder … Continue reading William James on the “Like” Button

KONY 2012: An Anthropological Perspective (TO BE CONTINUED)

“Right now there are more people on Facebook than there were on the planet 200 years ago”-opening line of Kony 2012 film. KONY 2012 is a benchmark phenomenon in the history of social media and political activism. A kind of descendent of the Occupy movement and Arab Spring - both grassroots political movements fueled by … Continue reading KONY 2012: An Anthropological Perspective (TO BE CONTINUED)