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.

Sexual monsters in a pandemic

Article

Tinka Krikke

Marieke Weeda

Emma Wieringa

06/05/2020

9 minutes to read

How are norms around sexual activity moralized as a tool for regulating behavior and controling the risk to society during the corona crisis? In this article, we discuss moral judgements on sexual encounters and masturbation in corona times.

Stephanie Buttermore's Cheat Day videos

Article

Elina Postova

Ana Clara Panontin Scarabelli

Ruzhica Kiprijanovska

26/04/2019

10 minutes to read

Stephanie Buttermore and her layered social media personality give us insight into how influencers construct a widely desired body image. Her "Fantasy Cheat Days" make us wonder about the nature of such content and what it reflects.

Joel Beukers gives his own twist to Foucault's biopower

Article

Yannick Arts

Thijs van der Weijden

25/04/2019

11 minutes to read

Joel Beukers, a Dutch fitness guru and entrepreneur, has been very successful thanks to the obsession with the human body and the current technological era. His loud personality resembles that of another Dutch media personality.

Jameela Jamil's 'I Weigh' movement and its weight on society

Article

Lea Goeron

Juliette Berndsen

Imke Spapens

Iris Dumoulin

25/04/2019

9 minutes to read

In this article, we deal with the concept of body positivity, Jameela Jamil's 'I Weigh' movement on social media, and how she is trying to make the online world a safer place for teenagers and adolescents insecure about their image.

Miss Vietnam 2014: When beauty standards are "westernized"

Article

Nhu Truong

Minh Anh Phan

25/04/2019

14 minutes to read

This article discusses the public image of Miss Vietnam 2014, an "abnormal" Miss by Vietnamese standards, who is still considered a successful celebrity by those more familiar with "Western" cultural values.

The readable body of Trisha Paytas

Article

Egle Talandyte

Federica Morgandi

Idhuna Pastoor

Myrthe van Rens

24/04/2019

10 minutes to read

This paper uses the Foucauldian theoretical framework to analyze the online visual display of the (morphing) body of Trisha Paytas.

Body Morphing on Instagram

Article

Mariosé Bergsteijn

Jelske van Es

Tara van Dijk

Nine van Steen

23/04/2019

12 minutes to read

Celebrities morph their online self-presentation, because when you look like and do things that are not recognizable by the masses, you are perceived as abnormal and therefore do not belong in society.

The "perfect life" of the ACE family

Article

Merel Blesgr

Sanne Graumans

Annika Platz

16/04/2019

10 minutes to read

In the seemingly perfect life of the ACE Family, there are many luxuries to be seen and "admired", from Range Rovers to building a new house. Still, they portray themselves as being a 'normal' family. But how normal are they?