Individuals and communities in the digital age

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 Bachelor’s 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.

Utoya island

No Man is an Island: Locating Breivik in Islamophobic Discourse Online

Article
Victoria Mohr
28/09/2018
10 minutes to read

The 2011 shootings on Utoya, Norway were a shock for Europe. The shooter, Anders Breivik, stated he was acting alone and was declared a ‘lone wolf’. Breivik claimed he was acting alone, but is it really possible to act alone in a digital age?

Masked man sitting behind a desk, using a computer

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

Paper
Inge Beekmans
01/06/2018
20 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 .

The extreme abnormals: sluthaters, the outsiders of the manosphere

Paper
Laura Smits
25/05/2018
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. 

Seen, but not too much: the black hole, secrets and stigma

Paper
Thao Nguyen
24/07/2017
18 minutes to read

This paper discusses the concept of visibility and its effects in the digital society. Based on the case of an online community art project in Vietnam, the paper will question how digital forms of life narrative can bring out issues of visibility. 

Playboy without nudes

Paper
Julie Peters
23/02/2017
17 minutes to read

What happened to Playboy? This paper explores how the removal of nude images from Playboy demonstrated changing masculinities in contemporary postfeminist media culture and the implications for gender politics in the digital age.

Phenomenon of Algorithms and Political Echo Chambers

The political effects of algorithms: a look at Facebook and Google

Paper
Mick Timmermans
17/01/2017
10 minutes to read

There is limited data available on algorithms leading to political echo chambers. This paper examines the use of Facebook and Google and the algorithmic system behind both platforms. What are the consequences?