Number of Posts: 7
Posts 1 - 7
Hinter dem Hashtag #BlauerWal steckt eine verstörende Geschichte
(A disturbing story hides behind the hashtag #BlueWhale)
Newspaper | Welt
Date | 18.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | (mental) health, hashtags, law, social media, threat, youth
Summary | Currently, a man is on trial in Russian courts for supposedly urging 15 teenagers to commit suicide. The case is connected to the #BlueWhale challenge that is said to circulate online on social media. It is a lethal game where one person gives another increasingly self-destructive tasks. Apparently, psychologically fragile teenagers are targeted online.
Image Description | Getty image of a blue whale and images of a man being arrested and in trial with his face pixellated.
Image Tags | male(s)
Jetzt kommt die Sticker-Schwemme
(The sticker flood is on its way)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 15.11.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | abbreviations, emojis, Facebook, language threat, marketing, social media
Summary | Emoticons (f.i. ":-D") and abbreviations (f.i. "LOL") have trickled down from "geek speak" and established themselves in the mainstream. Emojis are nowadays ever present in our digital communication as well as in other arenas such as film or advertising. Now various social media platforms, among them Facebook, offer users various palettes of stickers. They are larger versions of emojis and are sent as an image file rather than included on the keyboard as a letter. Because many sticker palettes need to be purchased, a whole economy is beginning to form: The Japanese messaging app Line has sold over $250 mio worth of stickers last year. We do not need to fear that emojis and co. will replace language as we know it.
Image Description | Commodified emojis in various forms (as balls, as tattoos, as bed sheets, as food, on clothing, as masks, etc.) and Facebook messenger chats using/purchasing sticker collections.
Image Tags | emojis, Facebook, male(s), social media
Redes sociales en las primarias del PSOE: una competición desigual
(Social networks in the PSOE primaries: an uneven competition)
Newspaper | El País
Date | 21.5.2017
Language | Spanish
Country | Spain
Topic Tags | hashtags, politics, research/study, social media, Twitter
Summary | The PSOE candidates in Spain use social media differently in their campaign. Sánchez knows the language of social networks very well and knows how to use them. He is the most active candidate on social media. Lopez was the first one to have a Twitter account and uses the social network intensively. However, he doesn't use the network the same way Sanchez uses it. Díaz only posted 670 tweets and has 115000 followers. Moreover, her language is not actualized; she uses the at sign @ too much. A study analyzed the online community of the candidates. When Díaz started using the hashtag #100por100PSOE, some people started attacking and criticizing her using the same hashtag. There are also multiple analytical tools that show different statistics regarding the candidates and their online campaign.
Image Description | Screenshots of the three candidates' Twitter profiles, and five different charts/graphs related to the candidates and their online campaign
Image Tags | chart, female(s), male(s), Twitter
School apologises for 'slut-shaming' prom posters about 'appropriate' dresses suggesting women 'to blame' for rape
Newspaper | Mirror
Date | 31.3.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | gender, hashtags, school, social media, Twitter
Summary | A Florida school was widely criticized online after a student shared posters that were put up in the school depicting what appropriate women's prom dresses look like and what kind of dresses are inappropriate. These posters were labeled with "good girl". The outrage is around the mysoginist language (degrading women to girls) and the mere fact that women's styling of their bodies is strongly policed and tied to accountability in sexual harrassment cases. The internet responded with a hashtag on Twitter with many contributions and the school's administration has since apologized.
Image Description | Image of the school, the original tweet with the posters, then tweets with students wearing woman symbol t-shirts in protest.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), school, Twitter
Time to Put on Your Big-Boy Pants
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 19.1.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | hashtags, Instagram, social media, threat
Summary | The skinny jeans trend is fading and the new trend are low-waisted loose-fitting curduroy pants with a drop-crotch. Social media influencers comment that Instagram is changing the game when it comes to promoting trends. Users can access an endless stream of visual material by just searching for a hashtag of a new trend. This has some downsides to it since it accelerates the changing of trends and pressures people to renew their wardrobe each season.
Image Description | Getty image of models wearing the new trouser trend.
Image Tags | male(s)
El impacto de la redes sociales en el lenguaje
(The impact of social media on language)
Newspaper | infobae
Date | 3.7.2016
Language | Spanish
Country | Argentina
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat, social media, spelling
Summary | Social media have an impact on the Spanish language with the adoption of new words such as "tuitear" (to tweet) or googlear (to google). Linguist Silvia Ramirez Gelbes claims that language is alive; it is growing, changing, and adopting new words. The introduction of new words in a language is not anything new; for example, when planes were first created, the aeronautical world had to create new words. Gelbes also states that people (and not authorities) are the ones who decide which words are to be used. Moreover, she says that although we live in a "visual culture", emojis are not a threat to our language; they should be viewed as a complement. Finally, people write more, so we witness a multiplication of spelling mistakes, but new technologies don't have a negative impact on spelling.
Image Description | Photograph of a man holding a speech bubble with different symbols related to new technologies, and five Twitter links to other related infobae articles.
Image Tags | emojis, male(s), Twitter
“Pic speech”: le parler ado
(“Pic speech": teen talk)
Newspaper | La Tribune de Genève
Date | 30.5.2015
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | emojis, Facebook, language threat, selfie, Snapchat, social media, WhatsApp, youth
Summary | Nowadays teenagers mostly express themselves through visual modes (e.g. Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Snapchat) and thus create their own language: “pic speech”. Images do not necessarily replace words; young people claim that words are still important since they contextualize images. Regarding emojis, teenagers use them for their “affective” purpose. This new language is a way for youth to become autonomous and emancipate themselves.
Image Description | Series of screenshots of different teenagers' snaps (selfie + Face Paint feature).
Image Tags | male(s), Snapchat
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