My Research Projects
This is a collection of some of my most prominent research projects done on the University of Amsterdam during my Master New Media and Digital Culture.
01
The Illusion of Autonomy and Intellect. (8.5)
This essay will discuss various scholarly views on the autonomy and intelligence of machine learning, including artificial intelligence and algorithms. Scholars can be seen disagreeing entirely with the possibility of autonomy and intellect of these systems, stating that it is exaggerated, seeing that the systems themselves rely heavily on human intervention. In contrast, others discuss that algorithms possess a different kind of intellect, more focused on knowledge magnification, allowing us to discern patterns and connections among the oceans of data to expand our intellect, making algorithms the most efficient and only way for information presentation and for humans to understand data.
02
The Change of an Era. (8.5)
In this paper, we will trace the evolution of BuzzFeed’s front page and the location of the BuzzFeed News tab between 2010 and 2020 by using The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. This will allow us to conduct a single-platform study of BuzzFeed’s digital content and platform vernacular (changes in syntax, Tone-of-Voice, design, and content). The study will serve as an account of changing tastes and a transition in the online media landscape throughout the 2010s. It will help us assess what changes in the position of the News tab on BuzzFeed’s main page point toward a change in media consumption habits in the 2010s by appraising the transformation of vernacular used on the site, the causality between this transformation and the attention economy, and the effects of social media on content accessibility.
03
Facebook's negative spiral
In this paper, we want to research to what extent Facebook still favours the return of provocative content on users’ feeds. To do this, we have chosen to look at important political figures that are often at the centre of discourse, in this case, Joe Biden. Our primary question is: Does Facebook favour Joe Biden related content that fosters angry engagement when looking at the posts with the most interactions?
04
Inbuilt Abberations In Tools of Surveillance. (7.3)
This essay wants to analyze the possible tensions caused in society by machine learning technology and find an answer to the question: In what ways is the application of machine learning technology in American law enforcement contributing to tensions of bias and opacity? This will be done by consulting the arguments of multiple scholars on opacity and bias. It is crucial to analyze the possibility and consequences of law enforcement relying too much on this technology without being adequately educated and the system having possibly built-in errors.
05
ChatGPT as a Knowledge Creator. (8.5)
What does this mean for ChatGPT when people use AI to create and curate knowledge? Following the Latourian mapping method and in order to create a corpus for the controversy mapping, Google’s News page was queried using the keyword ‘ChatGPT’ and filtered for articles written in English and published from the 1st of December until the 1st of February. These dates were chosen due to the high online activity surrounding ChatGPT. This corpus was used to answer three research questions: In what ways does ChatGPT influence/change/challenge the creation/production of knowledge in online English-language media? What ‘cosmos’ emerges by mapping out the vocabulary - or language of urgency - used in online English-language media? And what are the shifts in debate (if any) and in prioritization of issues between December 2022 and January 2023?
06
Putting AI In Its Place. (9.0)
To map something digital is quite complicated. It has no physical body nor real physical presence. It is often portrayed as everywhere and anywhere at the same time, unbound by the limits of time and space. One of these digital manifestations is artificial intelligence (AI). How does one map something that is portrayed as omnipresent, as everywhere and nowhere at the same time? For this research we propose to map AI. To map a technology portrayed with a digital presence everywhere and nowhere at the same time. However, instead of looking at this portrayed physical non-presence, we propose to look at the layers an which it is physically and materially present. To do that, we propose two main research questions: How can we situate, map, and criticize the material dependencies of ‘placeless space’ of AI based on the case of OpenAI?
07
Tracking the War in Ukraine. (8.0)
This research project focused on understanding how the attention to the war in Ukraine evolved from the start on the 24th of February 2022 to its current situation on the 10th of January 2023. The main focus was the interaction on war-related content, both per country and overall, on Facebook. This will enable us to indicate whether Dutch Facebook is predominantly and consistently pro-Russian, pro-Ukrainian, or neither and help answer two central questions: How has the attention to the war in Ukraine evolved, according to Facebook interactions on war-related content, both per country as well as overall?
This project was done in collaboration with multiple universities from across the globe. Due to the actuality of the debate and the current situations in Ukraine and Russia, NOS interviewed us regarding this project (minute 00:10:21).
07
The Truth About Search Engine Algorithms. (8.0)
In this paper, we will examine the possible return of problematic content in search engine queries by performing a comparative query return analysis on Google and DuckDuckGo. While Google often commends its efforts to monitor and moderate data by gathering information from its users to enhance their search experience. DuckDuckGo seemingly leaves all control in the hands of the users themselves. Looking at two fundamentally different search engines will allow us to accurately measure radicalness and investigate which search engine is quickest in showing problematic content regarding conspiracy theories.
08
#Terra’s Multi-Billion Dollar Algorithmic #Stablecoin Blew Up Today! (8.5)
When the value of the cryptocurrency LUNA (and its sister token TerraUSD) dropped from $78.35 to $0.000016 in a few hours on June 9th, 2022, it sent ripples through the entire crypto market, the consequences of which it still has not been able to fully recover from. The LUNA crash is “considered the largest crypto crash ever, with an estimated $60 billion wipeout” (Q.ai). It is evident that the crash of the stablecoin (a token that is “pegged to a more stable currency like the U.S. Dollar” and carries expectations of safety) became a hotly debated topic on Crypto Twitter (Q.ai). Using the scraping tool 4CAT, we are aiming to recreate the conversation on Crypto Twitter during the LUNA crash. Scrutinising this data will allow us to establish the frequency of the conversation itself, the weight of different actors within the conversations, and the different viewpoints exclaimed by different users. This research will allow us to answer the question: what were the dominant voices on Crypto Twitter during the crash of the stablecoin LUNA?
09
The Discovery of Angerithms (Bouman, 2023)
My Master's thesis is focused on performing an engagement analysis and determining whether Facebook's recommendation algorithm is optimized for angertainment and other kinds of problematic content. It has been determined that angertainment is capable of stimulating high-arousal emotions, which social media platforms have been translating into a steady stream of likes, comments, and views called engagement. This research project is adamant in finding out whether Facebook's algorithm has been exposing users to negative content in order to stimulate these high-arousal emotions and to stimulate more online interactions.
Are you interested?
If you are interested in some of my research projects? Please do not hesitate to contact me for further information or a full PDF. I will be happy to help you.
+31 6 43238098