1.1 Icon: Lev Manovich

A new media researcher I consider iconic would be Lev Manovich. According to the biography on his website he's "one of the leading theorists of digital culture worldwide, and a pioneer in application of data for analysis of contemporary culture. [...]  He's a  Presidential professor in the PhD Program in Computer Science at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, and founder and Director of the Cultural Analytics Lab." He has been writing about digital media since 1993, with his most influential book being "The Language of New Media". 

This book was also the first text I read by him and coincidentally my introduction to software studies. His work inspires me to connect my passion for new media studies with the more practical side of writing computer code and gave me the tools to appreciate code from a new angle.