WELCOME
I’m Dr. Nathalie Van Raemdonck, a Media and Communications scholar, freelance researcher, and allround internet person.
This online space is where I keep track of my academic work, freelance work, and blogposts.
Published PhD Thesis:
Van Raemdonck, Nathalie (2025) What others afford: Sociotechnical shaping of normative processes on social media platforms. PhD Thesis, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, UHasselt.
BLOG
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Over the weekend the story of an “online rape academy” went viral on social media, following an investigative reporting by CNN about an online network of men that exchanges tips to drug and rape their partners. The article was lengthy and detailed, and somewhere in the copy, remix and transform process of the online news…
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This piece appeared on Tech Policy Press and in Dutch on SamPol. In a matter of weeks, millions of X (formerly Twitter) users moved out of Elon Musk’s dark cave and sought the ‘blue sky,’ writes Nathalie Van Raemdonck. Since the US election and the appointment of Elon Musk to a position advising President-elect Trump,…
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The presence of Israel in the 2024 Eurovision song contest has generated a lot of protest, but Israel’s participation is an important part of its ‘Hasbara’ strategy to keep being seen as a rational democratic actor. This piece was previously published in Dutch as a column for SamPol. Military and political strategists have long known…
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This article originally appeared in Dutch for SamPol Magazine. As several countries have introduced new legislation to put a stop to disinformation, those laws can also be abused to silence the independent press. According to the World Economic Forum, “AI-generated disinformation” will be the biggest threat for 2024. For its Global Risks report, experts and…
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It had been a while since i’d been to a house party where we played music and danced. Back in the days (mostly pre-pandemic), houseparties with my predominantly Belgian friends would revolve around one laptop where people would add songs, or one phone that would get passed around. When folks would start dancing and hyperfocussing…
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(this piece previously appeared in Dutch in Knack) With a kitchen sink he entered Twitter’s headquarters on Friday, making it clear to everyone that they should acquiesce to his takeover. “let that sink in”. Why do so many people find it hard to let it sink in that Musk is now at the head of…
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On January 30th 2021, I ended a 2,5 year adventure working in the European Union institutions. I spent this time at the EU Institute of Security Studies, the EUISS, where I worked on the EU Cyber Direct project, providing research support to the European External Actions Service in its cyberdiplomacy endeavours. I have decided to…
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(Parts of this piece previously appeared in Dutch in Knack.) By relying solely on traditional media, we might not be able to create group immunity with a COVID-19 vaccine. A wave of conspiracies has washed over the information ecosystem and play into people’s deep seated fears. Science communicators can learn from conspiracy influencers how to…
Nathalie Van Raemdonck 