Talk Media to Me

In the ninth episode of Talk Media to Me, PhD Council member Merit Zimmerman (EUR) sits down with dr. Idil Galip (UvA) to talk about the growing prominence and status of memes in the art world, the "memetic turn" in media research, and their shared excitement for Severance and The White Lotus.

In the eighth episode of Talk Media to Me, PhD Council member Maud Rebergen (RUG) interviews her colleague Alexander Smit (RUG) on his dissertation research about how low-literacy adults experience the digitalized society and what policymakers can do to better include this marginalized group.

In the seventh episode of Talk Media to Me, PhD Council member Bjorn Beijnon (UvA) and his colleague Roselinde Bon (HU) talk about the prominent political role that big tech companies seem to be taking currently in the United States. They discuss how the second term of Trump is setting the stage for more political control through tech, and how occurrences such as censorship are used by big tech companies as strategic unknowns. 

In the sixth episode of Talk Media to Me, PhD Council member Bjorn Beijnon (UvA) talks to Nick van Hummel (RU) about his research on children and their media usage. They discuss how identity is socially and relationally constructed by children when interacting with media. Simultaneously, they also explore how differences in the fields of Media Studies and Social Sciences can be bridged in doing research on this topic.

In the fifth episode of Talk Media to Me, PhD Council member Maud Rebergen (RUG) and her colleague Nathalie Fridzema (RUG) talk about their history with Habbo Hotel, an online game from their youth which has recently been making a big comeback. They also discuss their media months, which (at time of recording in July) revolved around HBO's House of the Dragon and the European Football Championship.

In this episode of Talk Media to Me, council members Nataliia Vdovychenko (TU) and Dennis Jansen (UU) discuss their lives as media scholars studying the intersection of war and media, in Ukraine and the Netherlands respectively. Why is it important and meaningful to study such a topic? How do you keep yourself sane when dealing with such heavy subject matter? They also talk about their 'media month', which at the time of recording in late June was still very much about the new instalment of the Mad Max franchise: Furiosa. (You can now stream it on HBO Max!)

 In this third episode of Talk Media to Me, PhD council member Zheyu Shang (UL) and her colleague Ye Jiang (UL) talk about fan fiction and fandom on Chinese social media platforms. They start with an impressive piece of fan fiction work that creates a romantic relationship between Tomie (the heroine of a Japanese horror manga series Tomie) and Iron Man (from the Marvel Universe). Ye shares her experiences as a fan fiction reader, creator, and researcher. From fan fiction, they further discuss how fan fiction production and fan community behaviors become more influenced by platform rules and state regulations in China.

In this second episode of Talk Media to Me, council members Bartosz Zerebecki (EUR) and Bjorn Beijnon (UvA) talk about their media month. What kept them busy in February and March? As media scholars, they ask themselves what diverse representation in media actually means. Going back to their childhood memories, they talk about queerness in media, diversity in blockbuster movies, and para-social relationships with movie and television characters.

We have rebranded ourselves! In this first episode of the new season, council members Dennis Janssen (UU) and Bjorn Beijnon (UvA) talk about their media month. What kept them busy in December and January? As media scholars, they ask themselves if it is possible to change your experience of media consumption: can media scholars still watch/read/play/listen to media 'uncritically'? Does that ruin the experience? Is it ethically correct to be an 'aca-fan' in media studies? You'll hear all about it in this pilot episode.

This is the third of three special episodes that were recorded during the RMeS/NICA career event in June 2023. In this episode, Bjorn Beijnon (UvA) interviews Thomas Poell, Professor of Data, Culture & Institutions at the University of Amsterdam. Thomas tells about his journey as an academic scholar and gives tips and tricks on how to thrive in academia. How do you know if academia is the place where you want to work in? How do you get recognized within a university as a starting scholar?  In this episode Thomas provides some tips, tricks, and practical suggestions for these questions.