ABOUT

Tanja Sihvonen is a media studies scholar who is also heavily involved in game studies. She works as professor of communication studies at the University of Vaasa, Finland. She has published articles in academic journals, book chapters, edited books, translated book chapters, worked in editorial boards of journals, written reviews of all kinds of things, and taken part in several journalistic projects as well as various organisational activities. She has also been teaching at various higher education institutions since 1999.

SPECIALITIES: Cultural studies, game studies, film and video studies, digital media theory, queer game studies, various aspects of participatory culture

INTERESTS: Digital media, the internet, cyberthings, digital and analogue games

PAST AFFILIATIONS: Media Studies, University of Turku, Cultural History, University of Turku,
ASCoR, University of Amsterdam, Institute of Digital Games, University of Malta

ONGOING PROJECTS:

The Conceptualizing Blockchains project sheds light on how ideas and concepts of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies are constructed, discussed, and applied in society.

The goal of the Short-form video project, also known as the “TikTok Project”, is to find out what makes videos published on social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook interesting and convincing, especially in a journalistic context.

The Talking machines project examines how cultural perceptions of human-machine communication have changed over the past 60 years and how sound and speech have become increasingly important issues as artificial intelligence applications and robots have begun to become part of everyday life both at work and leisure.