Diggit Magazine

The digital individual

This course is part of the BA Online Culture: Art, Media and Society or the MA Online Culture at Tilburg University. Click on the link for more info on the courses and the programme.

In this international program Online Culture: Art, Media and Society (Culture Studies) the focus is on digital culture and (new) media. From disciplines such as cultural studies and media studies you study how digitalization and globalization influence our way of living. You discuss new ways of communication, art expressions as well as (social) media expressions like memes and trolls. You research how such ways of communication and expressions are established and how they manifest in, and have influence on a society that increasingly takes place online. Additionally, you actively contribute to digital culture by writing papers and opinion pieces for our own online platform Diggit Magazine.

JEf Verschueren, complicity, practice, discourse

Complicity in practice and discourse (Jef Verschueren)

Review
Tom Van Hout
16/08/2023
4 minutes to read

In this thought-provoking essay, Jef Verschueren marshals progressive values of solidarity, community, and engagement and compels us to embrace and share responsibility for a healthier public sphere. 

Eugenia Cooney: Youtube's representative of disordered eating

Paper
Lara Hoffmann
08/12/2021
13 minutes to read

(Trigger warning: ED and anoxeria). Eugenia Cooney is a YouTuber whose content is highly associated with anorexia and eating disorders. How do Foucault's concepts of power and the dangerous individual apply to a 21st-century social media figure?

a.s.r Vitality Application
© a.s.r Vitality Application

Step, track, shop, repeat: how an insurance company motivates clients to stay healthy

Video
Lily Francois
19/11/2021

The video explores how the a.s.r. Vitality app communicates societal health norms and how important notions in Michel Foucault’s work - the panopticon, social hygiene and care of the self - are applied to this phenomenon. 

Misleading Marketing: the sh*tty truth about diet culture

Paper
Jitske Verhagen
20/09/2021
11 minutes to read

The new phenomena created by diet culture are investigated in light of the promotion of 'weight-loss teas' by companies and influencers who create a discourse focused on body weight health on social media platforms such as TikTok.

Foucault’s vision on the morphing bodies of influencers

Article
Ellefleur Slangen
19/05/2021
9 minutes to read

Body morphing has become the norm even for those influencers who stand for body positivity. How can Foucault assist us in interpreting this phenomenon? 

Fitbit and participatory surveillance of the modern individual

Article
Nathalie Schabio
19/05/2021
10 minutes to read

This article sheds light on how Foucault's principle of the Panopticon can be applied to the digital age. The Fitbit app is more than a modern panopticon that shows that the 21st-century individual takes part in participatory surveillance. 

© a.s.r. Vitality

How an insurance company motivates clients to stay healthy: the a.s.r. Vitality app

Article
Isabelle Cijsouw
18/05/2021
17 minutes to read

This article explores how the a.s.r. Vitality app communicates societal health norms and shows how important notions in Michel Foucault’s work - the panopticon, social hygiene and the care of the self - can be applied to this phenomenon.

Stay home during Corona crisis or be judged.
© unsplash.com

Covidiots and the ‘stay home behavioural script’

Paper
Lisa van Turnhout
08/05/2020
11 minutes to read

The corona crisis has shown how quickly cultural repertoires can change when society is at risk. The norms we used to take for granted are now turned upside down, changing the way we perceive others and ourselves.