Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 16
Posts 1 - 10

Weißt du, was diese Emojis wirklich bedeuten?

(Do you know what these emojis really mean?)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 30.9.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | emojis, misunderstanding, punctuation, texting
Summary | We cannot imagine texting nowadays without emojis. They have become as important to us as punctuation. They serve to add a specific tone to our messages or to present them in a specific light. They are however also very easy to misunderstand. Do we really know what the emojis stand for? Here is an emoji quiz to text your emoji literacy!
Image Description | Artsy photograph of women texting and using emojis, a GIF, and emojis.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s), gifs, smartphone

Liebesgeschichte, Heldenreise, Flachwitze, Kacke

(Love story, a hero's journey, flat jokes, poop)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 2.8.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | childhood, emojis, marketing, smartphone, texting, threat, youth
Summary | The new emoji movie for children is an animated film starring emojis as its main protagonists. Critics find it quite distasteful because it is full of casual advertising for major tech companies and because it does not address the danger of the internet at all. In Textopolis, the world in which emojis live, alphabetic letters are depicted as elderly with walking canes because the youth does not use letters anymore.
Image Description | Screenshots from the Emoji movie.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s), male(s)

"Heute wird einfach gute Stimmung gemacht"

("Nowadays, it's all about creating a good mood")

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 6.6.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | emojis, politics, selfie, Snapchat, social media
Summary | Selfies on social media can have huge currency. They serve celebrities and politicians to style themselves as down-to-earth. Taylor Swift further includes cats in her selfies for the additional cuteness factor. Angela Merkel's selfie with a refugee has served to send the message that refugees are welcome in Germany. Selfies can also be seen as inspired by emojis; people mimick the facial expressions or use a Snapchat filter to emulate emojis.
Image Description | Portrait of the interviewee holding a smiley balloon.
Image Tags | emojis, male(s)

Die Frau, die ungewollt mit Emojis ein Haus mietete

(The woman who inadvertently rented a house with emojis)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 24.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat, law, misunderstanding
Summary | The debate around whether emojis count as words or seriously meaningful content is very heated - not only in academics but also in law. The Oxford English dictionary only reheated that fire by choosing an emoji as word of the year. Multiple law cases have centered on misunderstandings around emoji use, most recently a case where a woman indicated interest in renting a house with emojis (flamenco dancer, dancer girls, squirrel, comet, a victory sign, and a bottle of Champagne). The house owner sued her for using misleading emojis after she decided not to rent the house after all.
Image Description | An image of a woman's hand holding a smartphone and picking out an emoji and a portrait of the Israely judge who worked on the emoji case.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s), hand(s), male(s), smartphone

Brauchen wir ein Emoji mit nicht-binärer Geschlechtsidentität?

(Do we need an emoji with a non-binary gender identity?)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 14.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | diversity, emojis, gender, research/study
Summary | A new package of emojis will be released soon. One of them represents a person who is neither entirely male nor female, i.e. of non-binary gender identity. It is questionable whether it is worthwhile to represent such a small minority, seeing that there is no redhead emoji either because only 2% of the global population are redheads. A linguist of the research project "What's Up, Germany?" however argues that having a gender inclusive emoji is sending a powerful sign and can affect society via language in the long-term.
Image Description | A Getty image of a woman vomiting a rainbow, a tweet about the gender inclusive emoji, and a few GIFs of celebrities.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s), gifs, male(s)

Im Gefühlsextremismus

(In the middle of emotional extremism)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 10.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, pornography, privacy, sexting, social media, threat
Summary | Social media have messed with our sense of privacy. Celebrities can now address their fans from a seemingly private realm of self-orchestrated social media presence and regular people can become famous very quickly when they embarrass themselves enough on social media. Additionally, one can be made famous on social media by cyberbullies and previous partners by sharing "revenge porn" (nudes shared during a romantic relationship) after a breakup. The general tenor on all social media sites entails schadenfreude (rejoicing over other people's misfortune) - whether it be directed towards celebrities' faux-pas or normal people.
Image Description | The crying tears from laughter emoji.
Image Tags | emojis

Diese Emojis solltest du dir beim Flirten sparen

(You should avoid these emojis when flirting)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 24.4.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | emojis, gender, misunderstanding, online dating, research/study
Summary | Emojis can be quite tricky because they can lead to misunderstandings. This is particularly problematic in online dating. The dating app Clover analysed their users' chats to find out which emojis are a success in online dating and which emojis should be avoided. They found out that women like the hearts-for-eyes emoji, the monkeys and other animals, as well as the tongue emoji. They dislike the eggplant emoji and emoijis displaing strength, for instance the biceps of fist emoji. Men like the kissing emoji as well as the cheeky tongue-out emoji. They dislike the ring and the poop emoji.
Image Description | The emojis women/men like and dislike.
Image Tags | emojis

Auf diese 69 Emojis können sich Smartphone-Nutzer freuen

(Smartphone users can look forward to these 69 emojis)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 23.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | diversity, emojis
Summary | The next OS update is near and it will include 69 new emojis approved by the Unicode Consortium. Among them are a tyrannosaurus rex, a zombie, a puking emoji, and many others. All emojis are now available in male and female versions.
Image Description | The new emojis.
Image Tags | emojis

Diese Technik soll uns den Alltag erleichtern

(This technology should make our daily lives easier)

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Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 5.4.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, privacy, research/study, smartphone, translation
Summary | Computer are becoming more and more intertwined in our daily lives. Some smartphones can already translate real-time conversations with imitating the speakers voice thanks to advances in voice recognition. Image recognition has also advanced substantially to being able to "read" moods, age, and attractiveness of the photographed individuals. Research is being done for smartphones and other devices to monitor body odor, sweat (to allet to dehydration), or tear liquid (for diabetics).
Image Description | Various simple visualizations of smartphones/devices interacting with people (depicted by emojis), body parts, et cetera.
Image Tags | chart, emojis, female(s), smartphone

Das Problem mit dem ;-)

(The problem with ;-))

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Newspaper | Appenzeller Zeitung
Date | 3.2.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | email, emojis, misunderstanding, politeness
Summary | First emojis have appeared in official writing: the Norwegien government included emojis in one of their letters. Norwegian linguists are critical of this saying that we need to establish rules about emoji use first because they are easily misunderstood. Emojis have entered our everyday communication so profoundly that we now read even workplace emails without emojis as rude.
Image Description | Getty image of a Macbook keyboard with emoji keys.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, emojis

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