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Blockchain is one of the most widely debated technologies in recent years. Pundits and scholars have described it as a disruptive technology that will impact many sectors of society. Skeptics argue blockchain’s popularity is fuelled by the media’s obsession for the ‘next big thing’ rather than the intrinsic potential of the technology. In this paper, we follow a social constructivist approach with the aim of explaining how different discourses are creating new meanings about this technology. As Communication scholars, we focus on the role media play in framing debates about blockchain. Our analysis relies on a human coding of the most popular news about blockchain circulating on Twitter from October 2014 to July 2018. The findings show the general attitude about blockchain is predominantly positive. The discourses developing around crypto technologies are complex and multifaceted and indicate a general transition in the rhetorical definition of blockchain.

Blockchain has become a hot topic in technology, finance, regulation, and the wider society in recent years. Along the way, various users and interests have shaped the technology materially and discursively. This paper investigates the debate taking place on Twitter surrounding blockchain technology to understand the nature and development of its online public discourses. We collected and analyzed a Twitter dataset containing a total of 267,512 tweets that reference blockchain by 105,734 unique users. We conducted a mixed method research study involving qualitative and quantitative approaches. The results indicate that the majority of the retweeted posts are educational and promotional in nature, while the lowest numbers of frames are critical or skeptical of the new technology. The most active users seem to be largely involved in promoting the technology including some that are human created bots. The paper employs the theory of Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) that emphasizes the way our actions and discourses shape technology. We argue that a number of active Twitter users, for a variety of motives including financial ones, are shaping the discourse about blockchain by mostly framing it as a positive development in the global market, allegedly creating a revolution in the financial sector. More importantly, the social construction of technology on Twitter does not seem to be exclusively organic, for it includes bots and online spammers who mostly tweet promotional blockchain hashtags.

Our dear colleague, Philippa Adams, will defend her MA Thesis on Friday, December 10th, 2015 at Harbour Centre, Room 1520 (2:00 pm - 4:00 pm). Here is the abstract of her thesis “Creativity Within Constraints”.

Our dear colleague, Geoffrey Glass, will defend his PHD dissertation on Wednesday, November 18th, 2015 at Harbour Centre, Room 1520 (10:00 am- 1:00 pm). Here is the abstract of his dissertation “Comment Space”.

Our dear colleague, Pietro Sammarco, will defend his MA Thesis on Wednesday, December 16, 2015 at Harbour Centre, Room 1500 (1:00 am - 12:00 pm). Here is the abstract of his thesis “Waste Media Pedagogy”

Our dear colleague, Yuji Zhang, will defend her two MA extended essays on Thursday, January 14th, 2016 at Harbour Centre, Room HC 1415 (2:30-4:30). Here are the abstracts of the two extended essays: “China’s Quest for Soft Power” and "Re-examining Herbert Schiller’s Cultural Imperialism Thesis"

Our dear colleague, Robert Prey, will defend his PhD dissertation on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015 at Harbour Centre, Room 1520 (10:30 am -1:30 pm). Here is the abstract of his dissertation “Now Playing, You: Big Data and the Production of Music Streaming Space”.

Our dear colleague, Ann Rees, will defend her PhD dissertation on Friday, January 22nd, 2016 at Harbour Centre, Room 1315 (1:30pm). Here is the abstract of her dissertation “The Right to Au-thentic Political Communication”.

Our dear colleague, Felix Lo, will defend his MA Thesis on Friday, April 1, 2016 at Harbour Centre, Room 1315 (12:00 pm - 2:00 pm). Here is the abstract of his thesis “The Dialectic of Open Technology”.

Our dear colleague, Stephan Struve, will defend his MA thesis on Thursday, December 3rd, 2015 at Harbour Centre, Room 2200 (10:00 am -12:00 pm). Here is the abstract of his thesis “Shaping the Genohype: A Cautionary Tale of Overpromise”.

Our dear colleague, Lianlian Ti, will defend her MA Thesis on Friday, April 15, 2016 at Harbour Centre, Room 1520 (10:00 am - 12:00 pm). Here is the abstract of her thesis “Disconnected realities: An analysis of the DrugNot4Me campaign and its impact on street-involved youth in Vancouver, Canada".

Our dear colleague, Daniel Ahadi, will defend his PhD Dissertation on Monday, June 27, 2016 at Harbour Centre, Library Thesis Room, Bennett Library Room 2020, (10:30 am - 1:30 pm). Here is the abstract of his dissertation “Iranian Community Media in Stockholm”.

Our dear colleague, Amanda Oldring, will defend her MA Thesis on Wednesday, December 16, 2015 at Harbour Centre, Room 1500 (1:00 pm - 3:00 pm). Here is the abstract of her thesis “Tweeting Tsunami”