Diggit Magazine

© Flickr

On the freedom to protest

Column
Ana Deumert
29/11/2018
7 minutes to read

A recent South African court ruling ended the requirement to give notification to the authorities before setting up protest actions. Ana Deumert agrees and in this column she reflects on the right to protest as central to democratic citizenship.

Masked man sitting behind a desk, using a computer
© Photographer: Andri | Discributed by: Pexels

Forgive me father, for I hate women: anti-feminism and misogyny in the manosphere

Paper
Inge Beekmans
01/11/2018
19 minutes to read

Academics describe the manosphere as “a particularly toxic brand of anti-feminism”. It is a place where promoting rape is acceptable, but saying you hate women is not. This essay examines linguistic structures within the manosphere .

© Google

The bilingual Google Assistant: breakthrough or cause of inequality?

Article
Sammy Kossen
04/02/2019
9 minutes to read

Due to globalization, families are likely to speak multiple languages within one household. That is why Google made its voice assistant bilingual. Is this a breakthrough in the super-diverse world or just another cause of inequality?

© Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Al Jazeera

Centenary of Poland's Independence

Article
Julia Wysopal
17/06/2019
8 minutes to read

This article describes how Poland celebrated the centenary of its independence and how global media responded to it.

Meme communities and how to meme correctly

Interview
The Editors
03/06/2019

What are memes? And why is it important to study them? Ondřej Procházka is a PhD researcher affiliated with Charles University and Tilburg University. His research focuses on Internet meme communities and their sociolinguistic aspects.

algorithms, alogorithmic public sphere
© Joshua Sortino / Unsplash

The algorithmic public sphere and democracy

Paper
Aniek van den Brandt
25/05/2019
12 minutes to read

The public sphere has been controlled by humans for years, but in the last decade, there has been a shift from human gatekeepers to algorithmic ones. This essay describes the consequences this algorithmic culture has for the public sphere.

© Jason Leung on Unsplash

Matcha: Don't let yourself be fooled by superfoods

Article
Federica Morgandi
02/05/2019
9 minutes to read

Superfoods are hot, and so is Matcha, the powdered green tea. Matcha is more than just tea, it is a superfood, an identity emblem and a social media phenomenon. 

Three Dutch yellow vests holding up a sign demanding democracy
© Bri An - Gele Hesjes NL

The online identity of the Gele Hesjes

Article
Casper Arends
24/06/2019
12 minutes to read

This article discusses the online identity of the gele hesjes, a Dutch branch of the yellow vest movement. After a month of closely following this group it is concluded that its main battle is for a new political paradigm.

Brexit : An Online Battle With Offline Casualties

Article
Rebecca Jaffe
11/06/2019
13 minutes to read

In the 2016 Brexit referendum, the Leave campaign emerged victorious. This can be somewhat attributed to their effective use of social media strategies across multiple platforms. This article will explore how such tools produced this outcome. 

© Folha de Sao Paulo - Facebook page

This Brazilian newspaper decided to stop posting on Facebook

Column
Gabriela de la Vega
01/11/2018
4 minutes to read

Folha de Sao Paulo decides to stop posting on Facebook after the guideline change in order to stop the proliferation of fake news, but is this decision really what is best for the country's fragile democratic situation?

Tik Tok image

Tik Tok, taking you to every corner of China!

Article
HONG HU
12/02/2019
12 minutes to read

In the process of globalization, Tik Tok, the most popular short video and social media app in China, greatly influences China's marginal areas on both government and individual layer.

© The Guardian

Five years after the Snowden revelations

Column
Piia Varis
15/06/2018
8 minutes to read

Five years after the Snowden revelations, we're still more concerned with technological solutionism and individualistic models of privacy than addressing privacy as a common good.

The extreme abnormals: sluthaters, the outsiders of the manosphere

Paper
Laura Smits
01/11/2018
9 minutes to read

In every culture and group, you can find them: the outsiders. Outsiders are seen as 'abnormal', they are deviating from the norm, often unusual in an unwelcome or problematic way. In the Manosphere, there are even outsiders-among-outsiders.