About

Erik Borra is assistant professor in Journalism and New Media at the University of Amsterdam. He holds an MSc in artificial intelligence and information retrieval; his PhD research focused on the use of web data and new digital research instruments in the humanities and social sciences.

Since many years Erik has been the technical director of the Digital Methods Initiative, one of Europe’s leading schools for internet studies. In that capacity he developed dozens of tools to gather, analyze and visualize web data. In addition, he participated in several international research projects concerning i.a. internet censorship (opennet.net) and the mapping of controversies in politics and science (mappingcontroversies.net, climaps.eu). Erik also collaborated with Barcelona Media, Yahoo Research, “Pauw en Witteman” and “de Correspondent”, among others. His research now focuses on data (infrastructure) literacy in journalism, the use of web data in journalistic productions, and online journalistic storytelling.

Erik’s courses for the MA program in Journalism mainly focus on digital sources, data journalism, quantitative methods and multimedia narratives. For the MA in New Media and Digital Culture Erik continues to teach the course Research Methods for New Media.

Erik is currently the chairman of the board of studies for the MA's in Media Studies.

Research and Collaborations

• “Contropedia,” a collaboration of Médialab Sciences-Po (Paris, France), Politech (Milan, Italy), Technische Universität Chemnitz (Chemnitz, Germany), Eurecat (Barcelona, Spain), and DMI (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), 2013 – current.
• “DMI Twitter Capture and Analysis Toolset (DMI-TCAT),” (with E. den Tex and B. Rieder), Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2012 – current.
• “Digital Methods Initiative (DMI),” Media Studies, University of Amsterdam, 2007 – current.
• “Electronic Maps to Assist Public Science (EMAPS),” (with DMI), European research project directed by Bruno Latour, Media Studies, University of Amsterdam, 2011-2014.
• “Verbroederen de Olympische Spelen?”, (with Dimitri Tokmetzis, de Correspondent), Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2014. Articles 1, 2, 3.
• “Sociale Media Analyse,” with E. Weltevrede and Pauw en Witteman, Media Studies, University of Amsterdam, 2013-2014.
• ”Co-word Machine and Associational Profiler,” with DMI and N. Marres, Goldsmiths London, 2012-2013.
• “Politics, Elections and Data (PLEAD),” Academic Program Committee, CIKM, workshop track, Maui Hawaii, USA, 29 October – 2 November 2012.
• “Wikipedia Academy: Research and Free Knowledge,” Academic Program Committee, Berlin, 29 June – 1 July 2012.
• “Political Search: an investigation into online framing,” Yahoo! research labs, Barcelona, Spain, February – June 2011.
• “Mapping Iran Online,” (with R. Rogers, E. Weltevrede and S. Niederer), Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA, May 2011.
• “Mapping the Dutch Blogosphere,” (with A. Helmond and E. Weltevrede), University of Amsterdam, 2011.
• “Ctrl-X-Ethics: Cyberspace Research Methods Workshop,” Canada Centre for Global Security Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, January 2011.
• “Digital Methods and Migration,” TIC-migrations, Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris, France, April – June 2010.
• “Mapping Controversies in Science and Politics (MACOSPOL),” (with DMI), European research project directed by Bruno Latour, Media Studies, University of Amsterdam, 2007 – 2009.
• “Internet Censorship,” (with Govcom.org, Citizenlab.org and Harvard University), Media Studies, University of Amsterdam, 2006 – 2007, 2009.
• “Walled Garden,” (with DMI), Virtueel Platform, Amsterdam, May 2008.
• “Space for People: Suggested Fields,” (with govcom.org), research workshop, Video Vortex2, Netherlands Media Art Institute, Amsterdam, January 2008.
• “Palestinian Networks in Cyberspace: Emerging trends and their implications for politics, governance, security, and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” (with Govcom.org and the Information Society Project, Advanced Network Research Group, Cambridge Security Program, University of Cambridge), Media Studies, University of Amsterdam, 2007 – 2008.
• “Open-Search: a distributed, peer-to-peer, search-engine,” Amsterdam, 2007.
• “Mapping Public Media,” (with govcom.org), Ford Foundation with American University, Amsterdam, 2007.
• “Mapping Future Histories of RFID,” (with DMI),de Balie Center for Culture and Politics, Amsterdam, October 2007.
• “Poignancy in the U.S. Political Blogosphere,” (with govcom.org), Amsterdam, 2005.
• “The News about Networks 2: Making Issues into Rights?” (with govcom.org), de Balie Center for Culture and Politics, Amsterdam, June 21 – 24 2004